Last craft porject

I have a granddaughter that LOVES horses. She has a birthday coming up soon so I had to put on the thinking cap and see if I could come up with something. I collect wallpaper books whenever I can get them and when I saw the pictures of the horses I knew it would have to be a project for Mia, so that was the source of my pictures. The tin on the left was picked up at a thrift store for .50 and the Kleenex holder was a whole .25. It just so happen they were the same color. If you click on the picture you will probably be able to read the letters on the tin.....they are MB, which in this case stood for the maker of the cookies, however MB just happens to be Mia's initials. This was a blessing I did not even notice until I started to clean the tin. (God is so good, yes I am one of those that believe God is in control, He knows what we need, He desires to bless us, and the footsteps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord, I do not believe in coincidence.) The picture covered their add, the plaque with her name I made out of clay. The inside I covered with felt. I think it is fairly obvious what I did to the Kleenex box. So there you have it. It is a wonderful 67 here this morning so I must get busy in the yard.

Current Project

As you can see, I have a "helper". Her name is Salu, which is a Hebrew word that means, God restores. She has a hearing problem but I know God can fix it. She is a good cat that found us when she was a small kitten, we think she followed our big black and white cat we call Buddy. We think we know where they USE to live but when I went over there to ask if they were missing a black & white tomcat, they swore he WAS NOT THEIRS. Well with about 40 cats running around why would you miss one ? So we adopted them, had them fixed, and they are very healty and happy here. Our current count is 1 in the house, 4 outside, 1 of which came up here with us and is 23 years old and the other 3 are the ones that "found us".
So back to the project. This top picture with Salu is a new path that leads to our well. When I finish with it, it will have pine bark and big rocks on both sides. The bottom picture is going to be a new path that will lead out to the area where you see the rocks...there is a BIG hole there, the path will step down, the sand that is being removed from the path will go into the hole to help fill it part way up. The idea is to finish with a sunken garden. Thanks to my friend Janet, after some brain storming she said, "why not do a sunken garden"? So there you have it and now you know what I will be doing over the next few months. This morning I cleaned off the craft table, and do not think I will be starting anything new for awhile. I am finishing up with two things I made for my granddaughter, Mia that just might be my next post......till then, BE BLESSED

Interview with Rick Warren

This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of "Purpose Driven Life". His wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: "People ask me, "What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort, God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ's likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountain top, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings. Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD. " Hope this blessed you as much as it did me.

Funny Memory

You may have to click on this picture to enlarge it so you can see the photos. The one on the left is of my Great Grandparents on my mothers side. This picture was taken a few years before I was born. The other picture is of my mother and her older brother Dean. All of these people have passed on. The plate in the picture hung on the dinning room wall at Great grand mother's house about the time the picture of mother was taken. When they would go for a visit, my mother would stand looking up at the plate and say, "cock-a-doo" and Dean would say, "no silly it is a duck not a rooster" but mother would stomp her little half German foot and insist it was a "cock-a-doo".
This plate with all of the memories now keep me company in my kitchen
Did you do the fun thing on Janet's blog about What Color Are You ? Since I love color I did, I am a yellow, imagine that!not one of my most favorite colors but I like it, my kitchen is yellow.

Love Color

The crayon box flew open and look what came out! As I have said before, we live in a wooden house built in 1945. This room is on the front. It used to be a porch. The fellow before us closed it in. He was not much on finish work as you can see by the drywall boo boo. It didn't show up as bad when the wall was beige, like the other three walls are. I really had planned to fix it but I bought this paint last week, woke up early yesterday and said, mmmmm I think I'll paint today. I JUST LOVE COLOR !


The real inspiration for this color came from the rug and a stainded glass window that is in the living room. We cut a bigger doorway into the living room when we moved in trying to open the two rooms up to each other more. I wanted to make the opening even bigger but the smarter one in the family said we couldn't take out any more of the wall. The rug in the living room matches the one in this room only it is larger.




This picture gives you a better idea of what I'm talking about. If I would have scanned it to the right more you would have been able to see the stainded glass window. Oh well so much for interior decorating. My yard is calling my name, we have finally had some rain and the grass needs mowed, now the question is do I want to brave the heat or let it go in hopes for some cooler weather? Maybe a goat or two, if they would eat only the grass but I wouldn't have a flower left in the yard. Goats are a big thing in this area and a lot of people have them, I think they are cute but I'm not looking for ANYTHING else to take care of, afterall I am retired.

Giving Thanks

I wanted to find an antique Thank You card but to my surprise I had none. I did have this one someone had sent to their friend, dated 1916 on the back. I just wanted to take a few minutes and say thank you to all of you that sent up kind thoughts and prayers for my friend that had a kidney removed.
She went into the hospital at 10:00 a.m. they operated in the afternoon. What was suppose to take 2 to 4 hours took 1 1/2 hours. Everything went smooth and she is recovering nicely. They will do a complete biopsy of the tumor to see what kind of cancer it was. She is a dear sister in the Lord, she and her husband pastored at my church in the Keys for about five years, plus she worked with me at the Salvation Army.
So once again thank you to all of you and a very big Thank you to the God we serve. HE IS AN ON TIME , ALL THE TIME GOD.

Blogging Sisters

I'm feeling a little nostalgic this morning. A dear sister sent me the following and I liked it so much I wanted to share it with all of my sisters in Blogland.

THIS SAYS IT ALL: Time passes. Life happens. Distance separates. Children grow up. Jobs come and go. Love waxes and wanes. Men don't do what they're supposed to do. Hearts break. Parents die. Colleagues forget favors. Careers end. BUT - Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how many miles are between you. A girlfriend is never farther away than needing her. When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley's end. Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you, or come in and carry you out. Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins and extended family all bless our life. When we began this adventure called womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead, nor did we know how much we would need each other. Every day, we need each other still. Let all the women who help make your life meaningful know how much you care. The picture is of me, my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother. If you have your mother still here you are very BLESSED. All of these dear ladies have gone on and I hope to see them on the other side.A dear friend and sister in the Lord is going into surgery in about 30 minutes....they found cancer in one of her kidneys and they are going to remove it. Please be praying for her.

Bedazzled Birthday

This is the cover on a birthday card I received from a dear friend I have not seen or even talked to in a very long time. She lives in Tn. and works two jobs so I never know when to call, anyway the inside says

"Remember to LOOK and FEEL younger, the right ACCESSORIES can make all the difference!!!

Is that a hoot or what?

Yes I had a birthday last week, I'll just say I was born in 1943, it seems less painful than saying the years.

What is real funny about this card is the fact that I have been into making beads and restringing old beads and just lost in BEADS lately but my friend did not know this, which made this even more special. I had a real fun day, went out of town with friends to go to the antique shops....they bought my lunch and I bought two red glass bowls to go with my antique red dishes. Then we went to a HUGE Hobby Lobby, what did I buy ? Beads of course!

My honey took me out to an old B&B for dinner, and gave me money to spend on E-bay. I received cards and calls from family and friends, so all and all it was a very good and blessed birthday. I also got a new do, had my hair cut SHORT ----hopefully I will be able to get a halfway decent picture to share with you. Have you ever tried to take your own picture, I tried with the digital, well all I can say about that is if you need a good laugh, try it some time, after about four tries I gave up. The best one was a great shot of my nostrils. Oh well this is it for now