Tough Cookies

Within the past couple of weeks, a friend of ours used this phrase to describe us.  I often wonder what has caused us to be seen as "tough cookies" in retrospect.  I remember so many events in our lives, individually and in our married life that has formed us to the people we are today--for better or worse.
I know that many, countless times we've had seemingly insurmountable occurrences in our life that had caused us to immediately hit the floor on our knees in a puddle of tears because in our own strength, we could not do "this", whatever "this" was.  Miraculously, as if by only the strength of the Holy Spirit, we stood to dry our tears and put one foot in front of the other.  There were times that many times EACH DAY we were in a puddle of tears, surrendering everything to the Lord, telling Him that we can't do "this" alone, that He's going to have to do "this" for us because in our own power, we're nothing.

With each step we've taken, we often times get to see a few steps ahead.  Other times, we can only see the step we're on currently.  These lessons have been "hard learned" and wrought with heartache, pain, and rivers and rivers of tears.  So, to use the term "tough cookie" to describe us is not as accurate as perhaps someone with the strength of a piece of jello or as sturdy as a river of tears.

That said, the Lord Himself has etched Himself in and through every aspect of our lives, from our finances, to our home and everything in it, our vehicles, our pets, my Mr. G's retirement from corrections and on to his current job, as well as homeschooling, and moving on in to our lives very soon as post homeschooling parents.  Our lives have been filled with trials and triumphs, but only by God's grace.

So, it is only by the strength of the Lord that we rely on daily that we can be remotely compared to "tough cookies."

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,

 for those who are called according to his purpose." 

(Romans 8:26-28)

This verse has become our very own in the past 3 years through the trials we've faced.  We've clung to it tightly when the winds blew so hard and things we thought were "ok" suddenly disintegrated.

We were helped by many folks posting different scripture at just the right time, praying for us and loving on us just to let us "talk it out" and vent.  There have been priceless friendships formed that had those occurrences not happened, we would have missed those friendships.  God brings about things in our lives to bring people together who wouldn't have normally crossed paths.  What a blessing these folks have been to our lives!  They don't even know the true depth and breadth of how much they honestly helped us just by being there for us when we needed them most.  We feel the Lord Himself put them in our lives and we are truly grateful for their friendship.  

Many times, it was only through the gift of music that was able to sooth our aching hearts.  Many times I leaned on these two songs.

The Lord has blessed us, and given us peace so many times through so many ways. 

Praise His Holy Name!

God Bless,

Covenant Marriage By Gary Chapman

If you look along the left side bar, under the topic of "Marriage" you will find the book Covenant Marriage by Gary Chapman.  A few years ago I purposed to read a couple books a year in each category you see on the left for a couple reasons.  Firstly, admittedly, I don't know everything.  I am one of the biggest sinners on the face of the earth who is in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ my Lord.  I need Him daily.  I can't do for myself what only He can do for me, so why not accept it and rest in that knowledge.



I had grown up in a traditional worldview mentality of marriage where if it is broke, just throw it away and try again.  People were looking out for themselves and not communicating with one another.  There were lots of hurt feelings, selfish accusations, and willingness to throw love away and move on to the next one.  Although it wasn't spoken, many of my relatives--grandparents during WW2, to my aunt who had many children-each with different fathers, to my own parents who between the 2 of them have been married 5 times.  Myself, I've been married twice.  With all the hurt and manipulation of my first marriage, I knew when I got married again that I wanted it to be for life.

I wanted marriage to last, but how when I didn't have the examples of what that looked like?  Where do I look?  There was only one problem--Where do I start and what is it called?  When I started looking around, in the past 17+ years, I'd found all kinds of books on 5 Love Languages, Venus and Mars, being a Powerful Praying Wife, Courtship, Respect and Love and the list continued.  While I had read all of those books, I just did not know or understand what it was that I had been seeking.  I was looking for something that was higher and greater than the traditional worldview of marriage--something more connecting, and spiritual.

When I started reading Covenant Marriage, I figured I would read a little bit each night and be done with it in a couple of weeks.  That was not the case.  There were times when I was just upset with my husband, not fully wanting to read, in a bad mood, had a stressful day and the excuses continued.  It wasn't until the past couple of weeks that life pretty much forced me to take a book with me to these appointments that I had to wait for an incredible amount of time for them to be completed, so I brought my books and my knitting.  I knitted until my carpal tunnel issues bothered me and stopped to read.  I found myself needing more with every chapter I read.  I was soaking up not just communication, but how I have not been so aware about myself before trying to communicate how I was feeling or what my own needs were.  This caused quite a few misunderstandings which could have been circumvented if I had just taken the time to read that book sooner.  Regardless, it was time to get moving on it.

Now I am on chapter 10 and I fully anticipate being completely through it by the end of this month, if not sooner.  I will update when I finish.  I promise.

Have you read this book?  Please share your thoughts on it!

God Bless,

Humbled and Content

Tonight as I read blogs of my friends, I read things about contentment, emergency surgery, gardening, essential oils, Proverbs 31 women, and the list continues.  There are many many people on my subscription list from all over the world, all walks of life, and all stages of life.  I am so very thankful.

As I read about everyone's flower gardens, I allow myself to dream.  I dream of all the beautiful arrangements, flower and vegetable beds, and yard sale finds I hope to find in the future.  It truly is a blessing to visit everyone's blog to get such wonderful ideas of how I can redo the blank slate in our front yard, side yard with overgrown weeds, bushes, and trees, the enclosed back yard with the pool and deck.  I dream....

I want to start with my mail box.  I know this seems rather silly, but my mailbox in PA looked like this:

My mailbox here will resemble this with the Black-Eyed Susans, but a little different due to life circumstances.  We had to throw up a quick mail box, so we bought the materials locally, nothing decorative, but simple.  It filled the need.  So now, I'm looking at it as a blessing.  It is a basic box with wood to hold it up.  I've seen mailbox wraps to make it pretty with the changing seasons, so I'll consider those when I see them again.  I like Mary Englebrett designs, so we'll see if I can find something along that line. ;)  It will probably be a while before I do anything along that line because I wait until I can find it at the lowest price possible. :D

Along the front of our house is a lovely railing.  In some places it needs to be replaced, but it is simple and I love it.  

(The railing in the above picture along the front porch.)  

The railing pictured here shows what I mean.  It also shows the blank slate of the front yard.  We're going to have fun planting and watching things grow.  :0)

We'll replace the bad parts with new, repaint it and put up some window baskets.   The ones pictured below are the ones I'd like to put on the railing.

These are the ones from our PA house that we planted about 4 years ago.  

I'm excited to gradually get my flowers back and add to my collection.  For now, I look back at pictures from my flower beds in Pennsylvania.

For now, I am choosing to be content with empty whiskey barrels, no veggie garden, and the blank slate.  We are still getting doctors testing done, establishing ourselves in practices in the area and getting to know the seasons.  We're researching many things about the area too, with regard to flowers and growing, pest control and things like that.

I am humbled that so many folks have taken an interest in our daughter's story in God of Wonders Beyond Anything and Everything I Ever Knew or Understood and Resting on the Promises, in His Wings of Love.   We are currently in the midst of neurological testing, EEG, Neuro-Psychological testing, MRI/MRA and getting appointments for all those, as well as establishing ourselves with a new dentist.  Why all this testing?  Why now?  Well, in Pennsylvania we were told that once something came up, to pursue testing then.  We've had rudimentary testing done on her, but nothing extensive, giving us a picture of her brain.  So the Dr's down here in Georgia are using this opportunity to get all that done.  I'm thankful for that too.  Now we can see what's going on and if there is further treatment needed for her. There is no need to worry.  Nothing is "wrong" with her, we're just taking this opportunity to get all the testing done that we can so that we can get a better picture of her brain.

As for me, I had an MRI of my right knee done and found I have a complex tear in my miniscus, degraded cartilage (bone-on-bone), and arthritis.  The Dr plans to "clean house" addressing all the issues in one surgery.  The therapy is to just walk.  Wonder of all wonders, it's amazing!  The very thing I've been wanting to do for such a very long time, but can't due to this hurt knee, I can now do after my surgery.  Hooray!  Remind me of that when I am trying to get out of bed or a chair after my surgery and it hurts.  ;)

God has lessons for each one of us, on our own levels, adjusted to each of our own needs.  I am so very thankful He loves me to prune and grow me more for Him.  

God is Good!  

Blessings,

The Glimmer of God's Creation

Living here in southern Georgia, we've been able to see such incredible weather and cloud formations.  We love the glory of God in His creation.

The beautiful works and glories of God shines forth.

Although there are multiple snaps of the same area, with each frame it is different in it's nuances.  The wonder and awe are glorious.

(Psa 72:19)  "And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled

with his glory; Amen, and Amen."

Summer Before Summer Time and Open Invitation

The past few weeks we have been enjoying temperatures in the upper 80's to mid/upper 90's.  I'm told this continues well in to September.

I know this sounds very difficult to many, but for us these temperatures are lovely.  Some days when we walk outside it is humid, but not so oppressively humid as we had experienced in Pennsylvania.  Even on the hottest, most humid days here, it doesn't last long.

Everyone's gardens are well established; their yards are manicured; they are adjusting their schedules to get their yard work done super early in the mornings.  Then there are those of us from Pennsylvania who, although we've adjusted our schedules too, continue to struggle getting the young folks to understand getting their yard work done early is the best thing they can do for themselves.  I have to laugh though.  In Pennsylvania we always did yard work after 10AM due to allergies.  Here it done long before 10AM because the temperatures could be 85+ degrees by then.  They are learning and they are understanding more of the "why" now after a couple days of needing to finish a project.

This is our house last August, before we moved.  It looks a little different now with things trimmed and the grass mowed.

The swimming pool has been open and (giving us fits) being used daily.  The previous owners were not able to care for the pool and after getting the water tested we've found that it has Mustard Algae in it.  We are having a difficult time getting it cleaned off the side walls due to the toughness of this particular algae.  We've done everything suggested and continue to do everything suggested,but the algae doesn't go away.  I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm not going to worry about it because that's my husband's department.  I don't know much about pools.  I go out and skim every other day for half an hour before I swim.  I'll do whatever is asked of me other than that, but I have no experience or understanding of pool care.  My Mr. G has worked in this area about 23 years ago, so this is his arena.  My area is inside the house.  

You can't see it in this picture, but the deep end has a lot of mustard algae.

Looking to the south on historic state route 41

My husband is a shutter bug.  He loves taking pictures of clouds and weather formations as they come across the land.  He's done this for years.  When he hears of some awesome storms rolling in, he heads out with the camera as you can see in the above picture.  :)  Now he has me doing it!  LOL

I walked out of a W*lmart neighborhood store and found this!

The Lord met me at the door with this beautiful sky when I walked out of the store.  I stopped and took the picture while everyone around me looked at me funny.  It's ok.  I enjoy stopping and taking pictures of the beauty God blesses me with.

As we continue our new lives here in Georgia, the learning curve is still there, still steep at times, but still there.  We are adjusting, adapting, improvising, overcoming obstacles and making changes as needed.  The Lord has been so very good to us.  We've had some obstacles that has caused us to question whether or not we're supposed to be here, but the Lord has brought us reminders many times over that "Yes!" we're supposed to be here, right where He's brought us.  We greatly miss our Pennsylvania friends, church family, work friends and the area and life we knew.  We are working currently to make a place for guests to stay when they come this direction, even just for over night.  We're only a mile off the interstate, so it's very easy to get to our house.  Those of you who are traveling south are more than welcome to stop by for dinner, over night, or just stop and stretch your legs and visit for a bit.  We have lots of room!

God Bless,

Rights of passage

My daughter with her new Georgia friend.

All the graduates from this year's 2016 graduating class for our new homeschool group here in Georgia.

As the flags are being brought in.

I alluded to this happening in my last post.  Since our homeschool group holds the graduation ceremony earlier than our school year is finished, we have graduation before all the school work is completed.  Yes, we are still doing school, until it is finished.  Then they will attend youth camp (instead of staffing Encampment for Civil Air Patrol), at their own request (more about that later).

My daughter has decided to attend a local technical school in January.  We moved too late to get the in state tuition, by 1.5 weeks, so she's going to wait.  In the mean time, she's going to look for work, take entrance exams and save money for a car and school.  The last she mentioned, she'd like to get a certificate (or 2) in Cosmetology and Child Development, and possibly her Associate Degree.  From that point she isn't sure where she'll go or what she'll do.  Maybe she'll get a job cutting hair and going on with her education.  I don't know.

We'll see where God leads her in her future.

What an exciting time for her!

God Bless,

Almost a Month and Lots Happening

As I showed in my previous post, we had concrete floors.  Now, we are pretty close to having them done, minus the threshold pieces.  It looks so much nicer than bare concrete!

The living room floor after flooring installed.  It's lovely!  

From the other side of the room.

Photo Bombed by Biscuit

Getting Gus acclimated to the pool...or just having fun putting him on the inner tube.  LOL

Biscuit's turn! 

A graduation celebration dinner at church.

Visiting with Grandparents and one special uncle.

"And these alligators are found in the Flint River?  I guess we shouldn't swim in there!"

Beautiful daughter with her sewing machine.

The living room window that needs a treatment of some sort.  I'm not sure what, but since this window is so huge, it will probably be something simple.  We have new pillows that I found at the local W*lmart on a 2 for $12 deal, so I couldn't resist adding more color to the room.

I just love my drive home!  This area is so beautiful!  (Sorry for the bug splat on the windshield!!)

The view out my front door.  This is such a quiet neighborhood, it is almost like living in the country!

The morning this picture was taken, I was on my way to get my blood work done and to talk with my Dr about the Trim Healthy Mama Plan (THM) life changes I've been making, as well my right knee.  I found out that my right knee is "bone-on-bone" and it gets worse when I ride/drive for long periods of time.  The verdict?  Less riding/driving, less walking, more THM cooking, and more swimming.  With my blood test results back, I know that I can rest assured that THM is working!  I've lost 35 pounds, my Triglycerides decreased by half, my A1C is 6.1 and my fasting is 105.  I've not seen those wonderful numbers in YEARS!  You betcha I'm sticking with it! 

Strong young men hard at work, replacing worn out steps and putting in new concrete.

One side of my office is going to be a sitting area and I think I have a pretty good start with these wonderful pieces I found at a yard sale and an online facebook flea market group.  The wing back chair is a reclining chair.  The side table is an antique from the 60's or 70's, the lamp I just loved, so I bought it for a good price....and.

...the magnolia swag that I thought was so pretty.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll finally be able to get some curtains up on the dining room window, my oldest son's window, the office, and hopefully our bedroom.  With everything being so busy, I'll be able to sit down long enough to get my sewing machine out to work on some stuff.  I also plan to keep my eyes peeled for more furniture for the sitting area.  I love decorating "on the cheap."  

Have a Great Day!

God Bless,

We Said We Wouldn't, Until

When we moved in to our Georgia house, we decided we would lay flooring in our bedroom and in to my office, continuing on throughout the rest of the house once our Pennsylvania house sold.  That has meant we've been walking around on sealed concrete floors since September 2015.

Just to give you some context, this is the floors we've had in the pictures below:

The "Old Man" laying on his new well deserved bed, sitting on the bare concrete floor.

My office floor will soon be throughout the rest of the house, just to give context.

Refreshing your memory...our bedroom floor is the same.  I love it!

Remember what I wrote about our Christmas tree?  It's a lovely reminder of this time in our lives, when we watched God's hand move in and through our lives, just with a simple look at the unfinished floor.

The Living Room Floor--Before

I absolutely love this floor and all of the pictures we have.  Originally I was embarrassed by our floor and just didn't want to have anyone over, but I need to get over it and embrace the hospitality of it all.  So, I set up a cleaning schedule and it keeps clean.  We don't mop it unless something spills.  We don't really concern ourselves with much more than that.  And I wait for God to provide for floor.  I love to see how God works!

In a lovely and wonderful sweep, our tax return supplied those wonderful funds that we needed to not only pay off a couple bills, but had some extra to take care of flooring and a front end alignment for our vehicles.  God is good!  He provides!  

We said we wouldn't redo the floor until the Pennsylvania house sold, but God said, "That's ok, I'm going to bless you anyway."  

So, when Home Depot brings us our flooring, we'll get started.  The underlayment is already here, so it's just a matter of waiting for the rain to stop so we can start laying flooring.  My husband and 3 young folks are going to be very busy getting the flooring done once it arrives, so I'll be in the kitchen making sure everyone is well fed.

How has God blessed you today? 

God Bless,

Friday Activity of Choice

Nothing especially exciting going on here tonight.  I've edged the entry way and hall way.  I'm thinking of continuing and getting some white paint out to do the edges.

I'd love to snap my fingers and have it done, but with edges, I'm a wee bit picky.  LOL

No, I'm not Wonder Woman!

I was reminded a few minutes ago, that I needed to not only grant others grace, but to grant myself grace.

You see, two of my three young folks are off to a training weekend with Civil Air Patrol.  Their chores were done yesterday before we left, but inevitably with dogs, you have fur--especially in the early Spring.  Wait a minute!  What am I saying?  There's hair A.L.L  T.H.E. T.I.M.E!!!!   Needless to say, vacuuming up the hair in the corners and where dust bunnies decide to gather is an essential job to do daily.  The mopping/swiffer wet jet is done two or more times a week with an off white tile floor.  I was planning to swiffer wet jet after vacuuming, but my lower back and hips started to ache.  Do I continue or do I take something for the pain, go sit down and have my coffee and rest my back for a bit until the pain goes away? 

I decided a blog post about granting oneself grace would be good.  I started re-reading a blog post by my friend, Lisa, and realized that she covered it well too, but from her perspective as a homeschooling mom who has returned to school.  Whatever your circumstance, whenever you push yourself too far without granting yourself permission to sit down for 15 minutes, you are setting yourself up for pain, resentment, and you miss out on possible precious moments with loved ones or with the Lord.

I like to take the FLYlady approach to getting things done around my house:  You can do anything as fast as you can, in 15 minutes.  In that 15 minute time frame you may not be able to complete the mountain of dishes in your sink and on your counters, or completely tackle the ever increasing "Mount Washmore" in your laundry room, but you'll be able to take baby steps.  Disclaimer:  If you look at the FLYlady website and read about her system, you'll notice that she promotes getting dressed to the shoes with your hair and face done every morning.  As I type this, it is 6:19AM.  I've been up since 5:00AM and I'm sitting here in my pajamas with my hair done...or rather tossed up in a barrette and side pony tail.  I thought I'd get some blogging done while I have my morning coffee and devotions, then get my painting clothes on--minus the shoes, and get my entry way and hall way edges painted before the kids get up at 7AM.  LOL  I like the quiet.  There isn't any grumpy people to deal with.  LOL

This is my work today.  I have never used this dark of a tan before, but I liked the rich coffee & creamer look to it.  This is only the first coat, so of course it will need more than this.  It is coming along, though!  My plan is to paint all the trim white.  It was a mauve color, so we're changing it up a bit.  The flooring will go in last and it will be the same type that we used in our bedroom.  I just didn't want to put the flooring in first, then slop paint on it.  LOL  The first door to the right is where my office/sewing area is.  It will be painted next, Lord willing.  I've not firmly decided what color to do in there yet.  I'd love to do a nice soothing blue, but I'm thinking it might not be a good idea.  I might get super creative and do a base color and a stripe across the room with an artistic touch.  This is what the kids and I had done in the boys' Pennsylvania bedroom:

The stripe was so much fun and creative!  And, if you notice, I tried duplicating it in the valances with the stripe on the bottom.  We tried bringing in some desert sand colors, then balance or offset with the blue marbleized fabric for the main valance color.  I've been watching Fixer Upper and it seems that muted grays and whites are often used in that show, so everyone is emulating JoJo's designs, or at least trying to.  I'm not one to go with current trends, but I use my home as my color palate.  I try to find timeless pieces that are beautiful to me and colors that I love to decorate with.  If I can't find those timeless pieces, I make do with something functional--like the side table in the picture above--it doesn't go with the bunk bed, but it's functional.  LOL  I frequent yard sales, facebook flea market groups, estate sales, and I try to go to auctions to find things that will work for a specific area.

There are so many different things I'd like to do to my GA house, but I have time constraints and I need to save for the other things I'd like to do--like a new front door to let in more light.  I've also been drawing out raised garden bed plans and other ideas for the front yard are swirling around my head too.  We'll see what happens with it all.

Almost two weeks ago, when I wrote the introduction to this blog post, my dining room and living room were being painted.  I have finished and I promise that I will update with finished pictures, but I wanted to get one with everything in place--including the new ceiling fan and scriptures I've found for the wall. I promise I will take pictures and post them!

No, I'm not Wonder Woman and I've never claimed to be.  I am a woman who is saved by grace from the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am also a woman who needs to grant grace to myself more often than I do.  I need to love myself enough to push myself enough to get the needful done, but rest when I need to, to just be, pray, read, recharge, so I can get up refreshed and ready to tackle the next 15 minutes.

God Bless,