Wednesday, September 20, 2023

What I've Been Up To So Far - Happy Wednesday!

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I'm trying to remember to take more pictures throughout the week,
so I can share more of my real life.
So, even though we're only halfway through,
here are some things I've been up to this week...


Here's the view out my living room window.
I love birds and it's one of the few collections
that I will add to, even though
I have plenty.

I also can't resist a pretty view,
especially when the light is hitting it
just right.


We celebrated another birthday this week.

This time it's my DIL Alex.

Usually I fix up a pretty Fall basket for her

birthday, since she loves Fall and

sometimes her birthday has actually 

landed on the exact "first day" of Fall.

But this year I saw this cute paper and

decided to switch it up.


Here's what I've been having for lunch this week.

I had some taco meat in the freezer,

along with some black beans and corn,

so I made a pot of rice, added some spicy guacamole 

and had a very tasty lunch. 

I have enough for one more bowl,

but I don't know if I can do it for the 3rd day in a row.

We'll see 😅


I had to snap a screenshot of this!

Ted's new song, Dominion,

made the Top Christian Hits 2023 list

on Spotify last week!

And it's still there!

It's a beautiful song

and you can find the video HERE


I caught this from the kitchen window

this week.

A red bird on the windmill,

one on the sign,

and I think there is one in the birdbath

splashing around.



Here's my ivy that I haven't killed yet.
Yay me!!


I received an order from

Grove this week.

I've tried to use other cleaners,

but the Mrs. Meyer's is my favorite.

Everything they have is good quality and

smells amazing.

If you haven't tried their

room fresheners,

they are worth it!

Every morning,

after David leaves for work,

I straighten the living room,

turn on some music,

and spray the furniture and curtains with

one of my favorite scents.


This week I organized my office closet.

Things had gotten out of hand in there.

Up top is all of my scraps that

have to be made into something one day.

Photo prints that I'm planning to scan,

and cards and letters that I've kept for us and the boys.

One day...one day.



And, I thought I'd share this nifty idea...

the shoe bag on the back of the door trick.

It's the perfect place for all things wrapping.

I also use one of these on the back of the bathroom

door. We put all of our toiletries in it,

due to us having limited storage.

These are cheap and they work so well,

for so many things. 



And finally...coffee...because
it's a staple around here.

I have a feeling I'll be having several cups today,
as I continue to work on 
getting my pictures off my laptop and
onto the Big Mac, as I call it.
The iCloud is not my friend!


Have a wonderful Wednesday,
my friends!

Until Next Time...
Blessings!


Monday, September 18, 2023

The Summer of '88 - When God Writes Your Love Story

 


In the summer of 1988, God was doing a mighty work in two young people who lived 272 miles apart and had no idea the other existed. 

It was the summer that the Holy Spirit began to work in my heart and call me toward the life I always dreamed of, but had no idea how to get there. 

Simultaneously, the Lord was working in the heart of a young man who had been saved from a young age, but only saw God on Sundays. 

Neither of us knew what God was up to, but we were both on a path of wanting more of family and the good stuff and leaving behind the junk we had been living for, up until then. 

I began by leaving work every Friday, driving 2 1/2 hours to my dad and stepmom's house to spend the weekend, which happened to be just north of Corpus Christi. I would spend the weekend with my family, go to church on Sundays, wake up at 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning and drive the 2 1/2 hours back to San Antonio to go to work. This became my summer routine. 

I can't explain the pull I had toward wanting to be with family, except that my stepmom, Ruby, was praying for me.  I later would see that it was the Holy Spirit calling me toward a relationship with God, but at the time, I had no idea.

I continued to go to church on the weekends and one weekend in August of '88, I laid in bed on Sunday night and gave my life to Jesus. I was tired of being in control. I was tired of wondering what else there was to life and tired of bad relationships that went nowhere. 

I surrendered, not only my soul that night, but any desire I had for a relationship. I told the Lord that I never wanted to date again, until he brought someone into my life that would love and adore me, for real. 

At the same time, in a small, Southeast Texas town, David was making a change too. God was also working in him, pulling him away from a going-nowhere relationship, pulling him back toward family and creating a hunger in him to get back to living a better life. 

David was still going to college and working as a news photographer, but he had put in a two week's notice at the news station and was going to pursue other things. Strangely enough, he was assigned a big story to head down to the Corpus area to cover a big hurricane coming in. 

At the same time, I was working at The Hershey Hotel on Ocean Drive in Corpus and I was furious that my boss was making me come to work, knowing that a big storm was heading to the coast. I just knew I was going to die!

But, as God would orchestrate, David covered the storm farther south, then drove back to Corpus to stay the night, before heading back to Beaumont. Since The Hershey Hotel was the only one open that night, guess where he stayed? At the very hotel I happened to work in. That was September 17, 1988. The hurricane was named Gilbert. 

As he came in the front door, passed by the hotel gift shop, he looked through the window and there I was. I remember seeing him looking through the window, but the hotel was full of media people that night, so I just went about my business and didn't think anything of it. 

A little while later, he made an excuse about needing something and stood in the gift shop for a few hours, talking to me about his job and what he had been doing. We basically talked like we had known each other longer than a few hours. In fact, we were so comfortable that he asked me to go for coffee after my shift was over and I agreed, as long as I could drive, in case he was a weirdo and then I would push him out of the car and leave him on the side of the road. True story.

We went out that night, talked for hours and then I needed to head home (I had a 45 minute drive home), so I left him at the hotel and figured I would never see him again. He was a nice guy, but I didn't even know which direction Beaumont was, so what were the chances?

The next morning, when I came to work, there was a business card with his name and number on it and a note that said "talk to you soon" or something like that. I kept the card, but had zero expectations that this news photographer would ever be back, especially since we barely knew one another. 

But the very next week, he called. And within two weeks he came back. Then he kept calling and kept making trips and the next thing I knew, I made a trip to Beaumont and on and on it went, until one day in November, just 2 months later, we were engaged to be married. 

We were married 8 months later and here we are, celebrating that day, 35 years later.

Two children, 5 grandchildren, 2 beautiful daughters-in-law, and lots of stuff in between and we're still choosing each other, every single day. 

When David and I talk about the work God was doing in us, both at the same time, it still amazes us. He was calling us both out of the mess and into a life with Him, but also with one another and we had no idea.

God literally wrote our love story!

As every marriage does, we've had to go through all the many things that people go through - job loss, deaths, working out of town, moving, in-laws, fighting over stupid things and so much more. But every day we have one thing we know for sure...God wrote this story and it's the only one we want to be in. 

Did I mention we've been through a lot of hurricanes too? Uggg! Who knew that Hurricane Gilbert would just be the first of many. 

But, if I have to go through things, at least I know God gave me the best partner to ride out the storm with. 

I'll always be grateful for the summer of '88 and the God who changed my life. I'm also grateful that David went home after that first night and told his parents that he met the girl he was going to marry. I think things turned out just right. 


Until Next Time...

Blessings!




Saturday, September 16, 2023

My Week in Pictures

“ And then she realized she was replaceable in every area of her life except her home.  So she invested her time, her energy, and her heart wisely”

— Jillian Benfield 



Hello! 

Don't you just love that quote? I do. 


It's been a busy week, full of cleaning, birthday celebrations, grandkids and me being stuck on a project that I can't make progress on and it's driving me crazy!


I tried to remember to take pictures every day this week, so I could share my life a little more. Here's my week, in pictures...



Monday I cleaned and mopped the floors. It's my least favorite job to do around the house, but it has to be done, so I got right to it on Monday morning. All the chairs get piled into the living room until the floor dries. 


Our floors are in desperate need of being replaced, but time and money are dictating when these things will happen. So for now, it's trying to keep them clean and looking halfway decent, while we wait. 


Last week I bought a regular mop and decided to make my own mopping solution with vinegar and essential oils. I have a Swiffer mop, and I think those are good for spot cleaning, but I was starting to feel like all it does is skim over the surface and my floors never felt totally clean. I'll have to research some cleaning solutions, but this one worked for now. My floors felt clean after using this mop and of course the  vinegar was diluted with water, so the smell was actually refreshing. I used lemon oil for fragrance. 



Normally we don't have these two white stools at the table, unless it's family dinner night. This picture was taken on Tuesday, as I was getting everything ready for family dinner. We now have 6 adults, 5 kids, 2 highchairs, these two white stools and another stool (not shown) are all squeezed around the table. There are 11 of us now! As I always say...biggest family we've ever had and smallest house!



Our oldest granddaughter, Emmy, turned 8 on Monday, so Tuesday we celebrated. I didn't go all out on decorations, but used some things I had here. 





I mentioned earlier in the week that I would share her gift here. That very long gift is a set of boards that her PawPaw wanted to wrap in that manner to surprise her. It didn't go very well. She was a bit thrown off that Millie and PawPaw would buy her two sticks for her birthday.





Here's the real gift...a tool box (sorry for the blurry picture). This is what she wanted and asked me for recently. She wanted a real tool box "like PawPaw's" so she could work on things. So that's what we got her - completely filled with real sized tools. This is the girl who loves building and working and being helpful. 

The two boards were for a project that she and David will build very soon. So it all made sense after all.


On Wednesday, this little cutie came to visit for a few hours. This is Asa. He's playing in the extra car seat because he's a mover and a shaker and loves to be busy. I thought if I put this here, he would sit in it and watch cartoons for a bit, which he did...until he didn't 😂 Standing is more fun! I just love this little guy!



Friday was Millie Day, so I snapped a few pictures of the girls. Here's Addie (she's 4 years old) building something. She loves to build and she's getting really good at it!


This is Ella Joy...6 years old going on 15. She just got her hair cut into a cute little bob, so I snapped a picture. 


And here's Emmy doing a job with her tools. What 8 year old has her own set of tools? This one!


In between cooking, cleaning and playing with kids, I managed to read my Bible and Sunday school lesson for the week. 



It finally rained, so I took this picture through the screen on the back porch. You would think we've never seen rain before 😅 but it's been so long! It actually rained for two days in a row, which felt so good. 



One night I made David and myself some hot tea. We sometimes like to drink this after dinner. The honey is made right here in our town by some friends we know. It's delicious!

Recently...well for a long time, actually, I've been trying to get my pictures off my old laptop and moved onto my desktop computer, so I can clean the laptop and hand it off to the kids. But it's not going well.

Even though both computers are on the same cloud, the photos won't move over and none of us can figure out why.

I've worked on it several days this week and there have been a few times that I've been tempted to just delete everything and be done. But it's photos and you know it's not that easy.

Today David has to go to work for a few hours, so I haven't decided what I need to do yet. We have another birthday coming up this week, I need to make a grocery list and meal plan, wrap a few gifts and pay some bills. 

But first I need to finish my coffee and eat some breakfast. Nothing should be decided until those two things have been done 😀 Priorities.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Until Next Time...
Blessings! 















Monday, September 11, 2023

Happy Monday!

 


Hello Friends!

It's Monday morning and I'm having my coffee and catching up on everyone's blogs. I just love reading about your lives, seeing what you're working on, what you're organizing and what inspiring things you've been doing. You all inspire me to get busy and work on my own things 😀

David and I had a good weekend. We spent Saturday shopping for our granddaughter's birthday, which is actually today. She's our first grand baby and she's 8 today. Later this week I'll share what we got her and her reaction. 

Sunday we tried a new Sunday School class - which by the way - I realize we are behind the times because we still call it a Sunday school class, when they are actually called "Connection Groups" or something like that now. Oh well. 

Anyway, it was a great class, full of old friends and familiar faces. We are loving being back at our home church. It's like a reunion every week.

The rest of Sunday was spent watching a movie - Julie and Julia. This was such a good movie! Julia Child was an interesting person, to say the least and Meryl Streep did a great job of portraying her. 

It was the perfect Sunday afternoon movie. I sat on the floor and worked on a new puzzle while watching the movie. David dozed on the couch in between sips of his coffee 😴

Eventually we both had to get up and do things.

With David's mom in an assisted living, we often get her groceries, such as snacks and supplies. So I headed off to the store with her list and gave David a "honey-do" job to do while I was gone, which was spraying down all the windows with bleach. 

Our windows had gotten so dirty and had some algae starting to grow on them. A combination of such hot temps, dusty winds and humidity.  So while I was at the store, he sprayed and scrubbed all the windows and now they look great again. 

When I got back with the groceries, he then delivered the supplies to his mom, which is about 15 minutes from where we live. 

I called both of my sons and talked to them (and my Morgan) while David was gone. They are about to embark on a week long project, so I wanted to just hear their voices before the week got started. Now that we aren't with them at church, I miss them in between visits. 

David got back from seeing his mom and we settled in for a few episodes of Frasier before I headed off to bed. 

Lately I've been working on my laptop, trying to transfer my photos to my big computer. It's not going well! There is a disconnect between the two computers and the cloud and nothing is transferring and we haven't been able to figure it out. I even had my techie son (Collin) look at it and it's a mystery to both of us.

Why do we take so many pictures anyway?

Besides working on my photo project, I've been educating myself on Youtube with videos about Velocity Banking. If you're not into personal finance and don't enjoy it, this will bore you beyond bored. But I find it very interesting and I love budgeting, so it's been a nice change from watching people clean their house or live on narrowboats 😀

Today I will be busy cleaning and prepping some food for family dinner (and Emmy's birthday celebration) tomorrow. 

I have a full list of To-Do's today, one of them being "exercise." Should I put it at the top of the list or the bottom? Hmmm...😅 Or maybe I'll count the mopping as exercise and just mark it off the list already. 

Either way, I'll burn a few calories, which is always good!


I hope you have a wonderful Monday! Pray for rain! Texas is starting to have wildfires and not too far away from here. 


Until Next Time...

Blessings! 


Friday, September 8, 2023

If God Had a Whiteboard

 

I've often said that I would love to have a whiteboard fall from the sky every morning and have directions from the Lord written plain and clear. How easy would life be, if this were the case?

No more guessing which direction to go. No more trying to discern whether to do this or that. No more costly mistakes that leave you having to backtrack or fix what you messed up.

But then I realized that a whiteboard full of instructions wouldn't facilitate relationship; it would merely command obedience. 

Anyone can make a task list for you to follow. But not just anyone can draw you close and whisper to your heart, in a still small voice. Only God can do that. 

Distinguishing God's voice from your own (or from a cold-hearted list) takes drawing near to God. We have to know his character, know his word, know his track record and know his love for us, above all else. 

We have to lean in close, so we can hear him above all the other voices (even our own) and determine if the direction we need to go, is aligned with what we know of him. 

But even then, we sometimes make mistakes and we're left wondering what happened. We pray and seek and yet, even then, we can make decisions that turn out to be disasters or at the very least, great inconveniences. 

This happened in our lives, several years back. Circumstances came together and we made a decision to move to another city. All along the way, we were praying and giving the Lord every opportunity to change our path and put up roadblocks. But he didn't. 

We chose a house and prayed that if this wasn't THE house he had for us, that he would stop the buying process and point us in another direction. But he didn't.

Everything moved forward. The seller even chose us out of several other applicants. We kept praying and the doors kept opening.

Before we knew it, we were moving in and one year later, we were moving out. It was miserable. We were miserable. I couldn't understand why the Lord would allow us to make such a huge mistake. So we packed up and bought a more reasonable house and in two more years, realized it wasn't right either.

We seemed to be caught up in a season of moving and we felt lost and confused over what to do. 

Finally, the dreaded Covid hit and we were faced with some work circumstances that seemed like they were pointing us in the direction of renting this little cottage we're in now. Currently we've been here 3 years and still look back and marvel at how God orchestrated this move and how clearly we feel he spoke to us about this house.

But what happened with the first two moves?

Did we misinterpret God's answers or did he take us on an adventure, to get us to where we are now?

I still go back and forth on why we had to waste so much time and money, especially if this is where he wanted us to end up! I have often felt shame over all the moves and seemingly missed interpretations of what I thought the Lord was leading us to do.

But the farther we get from those past circumstances, the more I realize that we have benefited from the growth that took place because of them. 

We have learned what things look like, when circumstances truly are orchestrated by God, verses when they aren't. 

We have learned to wait on him. 

We have learned that his version of what we need is far different than our version. 

And we've also looked back and realized that we wouldn't be here, had we not taken the risk to get here.

Yes, we hit some big bumps by taking the risk. We lost money and time and our pride, at times. We even lost faith on some days, because it was all so confusing. 

But, here and now, I know without a doubt, that everything we went through was a learning process. And we're still learning. 

If I had it to do over, would I rather God just drop down a whiteboard and draw me a map to this place we're in now? Probably. 

But would I be wiser for it? I don't believe so. 

Not taking the risk and facing the difficulties would have kept me safer, but I would have missed the education and ultimately, the knowing the difference between God's leadership and my own. I think we would have also missed watching God work on our behalf, when our decisions got off track.

Sometimes life is risky. Sometimes there is no map and you're really just feeling your way down the road, with a blindfold on. 

But God is bigger than your mistakes! And his whisper is so much sweeter than an arbitrary list on a white board (although I love a good list!). 

So lean in real close today and listen for his voice. Do your best to discern his instructions and when you can't hear him just yet...wait until he tells you to go. 

It's going to be risky, for sure! But the risk will be worth all the growth, I promise. 


Until Next Time...

Blessings!




Thursday, September 7, 2023

Memories of the Best Job Ever

My first book - a memoir/how-to book
 about our homeschooling journey. 


As I read Billie Jo's post this week about starting her daughter's 8th grade year of homeschooling , it brought back so many good memories of my own time as a homeschool mom.  

I loved being with my boys. We stayed busy and every year was different. If we weren't learning at home, we were going to Tae Kwon Do or music practice. Some years we joined co-ops and some years we just enjoyed being at home more. 

We traveled a lot with David, as he would go to far away places for work. Those were educational trips for the boys and I, plus we got to see a lot of nice hotels, museums, beaches and lots of stops along the way, like the year we drove Route 66 all the way from the Santa Monica pier to Oklahoma. 

Life was our schoolroom, much of the time. 

Our days at home were routine. We did school in the mornings and the boys had the afternoons to work on their own hobbies and interests. The afternoons were also when we would go to various practices they had. 

I remember one year, David was working in Dallas for a few months and could only come home on the weekends. By that time, Ted was involved with a local Christian Academy, playing on their worship team for chapel every Wednesday. I would have to get Ted to practice every Wednesday morning at about 7:00 a.m. and it was a good 30 minute drive. So I would wake up my sleepy 9 year old, put him in the car, in order to get my 15 year old to practice on time. Fun times!

There were times when David would work from home and I had to teach the kids, while trying to maintain somewhat of a schedule with dad home. Lots of those days turned into David and the kids playing songs on the guitars or doctoring the horses. I called it Science and learned to not sweat the small stuff.


Collin's freshman year he attended a Fine Arts Co-op, 

where he would go for the next 3 years for drama, music, and history 


After Ted graduated, in 2011, it was just Collin and I doing our school days together.  It took some getting used to, not having Ted there for the subjects we liked doing together, such as history, reading and science. But Collin and I fell into our own routine and I realized that the first 6 years of Ted's life, that he lived as an only child, I was now getting those kind of years with Collin and it was really special. 

Ted was off starting his own recording studio, touring Europe, and playing at various churches around our community, so our home was kind of quiet, compared to what it used to be. 

Collin and I are both homebodies, so after our school work was done each day, we both had plenty of time to do other things that interested us. For him, that looked like building a computer from scratch, teaching himself to perfect the guitar and earning money by creating music for other people's video games. 

Collin kept himself busy and eventually became an intern at church and that's where he would be, when not at home.

My kids never missed out on anything. In fact, they had so many unique opportunities, because of homeschooling. 

When Collin finally graduated, in 2017, I was a little bit afraid of what I would find to fill my days. 

I had been my son's teacher for 20 years! I had taught every grade, every subject, TWICE!

Now I was officially retired from teaching (or so I thought) and it was kind of scary at times.

But, as life always does, things came up (like huge storms named Harvey), we moved a few times, I started teaching my grand babies and we had weddings and more babies, I wrote another book and here we are.

The empty nest days are still kind of different. It feels strange to own my own time, if you know what I mean. I keep thinking I have to be busy or I'm not doing enough. One day I'll learn to relax better. I hope.

In the meantime, when I see posts like Billie Jo's and think back on those sweet days of being with my boys, I just fall in love with homeschooling all over again. I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the privilege of being at home and being with my kids. I never have to look back and wonder if we spent enough time together. 

I wasn't the perfect mom or teacher, but we learned together, and that was the fun part. 

I think my boys would say the same. And that's all that matters.


Until Next Time...

Blessings!

Monday, August 28, 2023

Thank You!

 


Good morning friends!

I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment on my last post! I am feeling back to normal and am looking forward to a normal week, with hopefully, few surprises 😅

Over the weekend David and I dared to work outside in this heat, but our yard was looking abandoned, brown and crunchy, so it had to be done.

While David did the yard work, I moved everything off the back porch, washed all the dust off everything and put it all back together. Now we just need the cooler weather and we can sit outside and enjoy this view.

Many of my plants have gone crunchy too, but we continue to water the flower beds. 

Both of my kids live in a city just down the road, where the water supply has been affected by the drought.  David and I noticed the bottled water is in low supply at the store we normally go to. People are having to drink bottled water until the water supply is safe.

We did have some brief rain last night, but it wasn't enough to turn things around at this point. 

Over the weekend I made a cake, just for fun. I have finally figured out the secret to the perfect bundt cake...lots of greasing the pan! When the pan is adequately greased and you let the cake cool completely before turning over, it comes out perfectly. 

I only mention this because it has taken me years to get a perfect bundt cake. 


Today I am getting all 3 girls, so my day will be filled with playdoh, snacks, dance parties and who knows what else! 

Needless to say, I will sleep good tonight!

I hope each of you have a wonderful day and I look forward to catching up on all of your blogs this week. 


Until Next Time...

Blessings!



Thursday, August 24, 2023

Everything's Peachy




Well, it's already Thursday and I have only written one post this week. It's been a strange week, with lots of things going on in our family. 

Some of us have been sick, one a/c unit died, 3 kids got on an airplane and I had a bad reaction to an antibiotic this week and it knocked me for a loop. 

Other than that, everything's peachy 😉

I am feel cautiously better today. I hope to get my appetite back and my energy too. You know when I lay around, that I'm sick, because I hate laying around. But I did a lot of that yesterday and even managed to watch a movie that I've never seen...Sweet Home Alabama...with Reese Witherspoon.  It was a fun (if not predictable) movie and I'll probably watch it again with David this week. He'll get a kick out of it. 

I did get to the grocery store on Monday and did a stock-up buy. I filled my new freezer part way, with things that are nice to have on hand and will hopefully keep us from grabbing quick meals out. Of course, since then I haven't cooked anything, due to not feeling well. But tonight it's a roast in the crockpot, which is easy and it will give us something to eat off of for days.

Isn't funny how sometimes the leftovers are more exciting than the real meal? For instance, when I thought of the roast this morning, I instantly thought of the roast sandwich the next day, which made me even more excited than eating the roast tonight.  Same thing when I think about turkey on Thanksgiving. I anticipate the turkey sandwich the next day, more than the real meal. Apparently, I enjoy sandwiches 😀

I'm not sure what today will hold. It's one of those in-between days when you feel better, but you stick close to home, just in case. There are many chores that need to be done today and if I have my energy back, it will actually be nice to do something besides lay around. 

I will spend time catching up on my favorite blogs. And I'm reading a good mystery book that I got from the library, so I'm looking forward to reading for a while today. 

I hope to be back in full swing soon and taking more pictures. Sometimes that's what delays me posting, because I haven't gotten any new pictures to share. I need to get better at that. 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week! I'll be reading, even if I'm not writing. 

Until Next Time...
Blessings!  


Monday, August 21, 2023

Catching Up and A Pretty Craft Project

Happy Monday!

Well, it's been a long week since last Monday, it seems. 

Life was filled with lots of time with family, some much needed car repairs and even a fun day of crafts with a friend.


I saw this crafty project on Instagram awhile back and shared it with my friend Kim. She is the queen of crafts and basically uses crafting as therapy 😀 So on Friday we got together and made these pretty glass jars into something even prettier, by using paper flowers, greenery and Modge Podge. 

These are simply glass jars from the Dollar Store and the flowers are from Amazon. 

We used a paintbrush to put a layer of glue on the jar first, then held the flowers in place while painting over them with more glue. The thicker stems were tricky and didn't work that well, but the flatter flowers and leaves adhered easily. 

This would make a beautiful gift for someone, if you're into making gifts. The jars were $4.00 and the flowers came in sets for a few dollars each. So for about $5.00 or so, you could create some very pretty jars for someone on your list. 

🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍🛍



Emmy and Ella cooling off under a bubble of water.

Thursday was Millie Day and after picking up the girls, I made the spontaneous decision to stop by the city park to let them play. The playground was basically empty, now that school has started (a homeschooler's dream) and thankfully they recently put in a splash pad right next to the playground.

So after letting the girls get toasty on the playground, we walked to the splash pad and they were able to cool off in the water. They had the best time. 

Addie found a friend who brought toys. 


Once we were done with the water play, we headed back to my house for lunch and dry clothes. If this heat keeps up, we may make the splash pad a regular thing!

Our weekend was filled with more family time, some car repairs and I finally bought a new freezer.

I had a chest freezer before we moved into this little cottage, but there was no room for it here, until we built the back porch. 

Well, I was trying my best to make it without an extra freezer, but the bottom freezer that I have just isn't big enough for anything extra. So, since I've really been thinking about stocking up and making extra dishes to keep on hand, I realized I could save money by buying a freezer and being able to buy things on sale and make extra meals when I can. 

We found a small freezer at Sam's and now it's on my back porch waiting to be filled with extra things. 

Today will be all about catching up from the busy weekend and tomorrow I will get groceries. 

Every day that moves forward, we are one step closer to cooler weather, praise the Lord!

Hopefully I can write more this week too.

Thanks for reading my random thoughts today!


Until Next Time...

Blessings! 



Thursday, August 17, 2023

Thankful Thursday - My Boys

 Happy Thursday!

It's early morning and I've just finished reading Jennifer's Thankful Thursday post and decided to give thanks here for some things that are going on in my son's lives. 

First off, Collin was asked to lead worship at a conference in Utah next week! So he, Morgan and Asa will be on a plane next week, heading to Utah for 5 days! 

What a blessing this is for their little family. They've been working so hard and they've just finished moving and they needed a break. This trip will give them an opportunity to have some free time during the day and Collin will lead worship at night. 

I'm so excited for them! And so very proud of Collin and his heart for the Lord. He is a passionate worship leader and I know he's going to do a great job leading the people next week. 


And just yesterday, my oldest son Ted, released a new music video and I couldn't be more proud of this young man. 

Ted is an unusual mixture of talent in the music industry. Not only is he an amazing music producer, but he is an artist, musician, and songwriter too. 

He and Collin stay so busy in the studio, that I sometimes worry that Ted will forget to release his own music, while busy working on everyone else's. 

So I was thrilled to see this song come out and the video too.

I hope you'll listen and be blessed by this worship song.


I'm always thankful for my boys, but I still get such a blessing out of seeing the Lord use them in their unique gifts and having it point back to Him.

Thanks for letting me share my kids with you today on Thankful Thursday 😀

Until Next Time...

Blessings!

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

I've Been in a Creative Funk

 



Do weeks ever go by where you feel like you're in a daze or a funk and all the things that usually excite you, just don't have the same appeal they normally do? Every now and then this will happen and I find myself just kind of moving on autopilot, doing things, but not creating things, and I don't enjoy it. 

The good thing is, the funk always passes and all of a sudden I wake up one day and feel creative again and feel like decorating, writing, living a little more and doing something new. 

I guess you could call it a creative funk.

So recently, when I got excited over some thoughts about decorating, I realized all would be right with my world and my creative self would survive. I'm blaming it on the heat.

Our poor yard is brown and crispy, the weeds are creeping into the flower beds and neither of us feel like going outside in the evenings because it's still in the high 90's at 8:00 p.m. 

But last night I did go out and I watered all the plants, washed down the porch and even rinsed my car, and thankfully there was a very warm breeze blowing, so it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. 

I don't like being cooped up inside, but the heat has been unbearable. 

I'm ready to see the leaves falling when I look out the window. 

I'm ready to grab a sweater on my way out the door.

I'm ready to curl up with a warm blanket to read a book or watch tv.

I'm ready for that first cool day when I open the door and instead of a hot blast of wet air hitting me in the face, I'm greeted with a cool, crisp morning of hope and excitement. 

Yes, I'm ready for Fall. 

I'm ready to be chilly. 

I'm ready to play outside with the kids and eat dinner on the back porch.

These are the things that make you feel alive. Not this oppressive heat.

But, at least my creative funk has lifted...for now. 

I'd better start creating while inspiration has come to visit. 

It may soon vanish again, like the freon in my car has done this summer.



Until Next Time...

Blessings!