Bad news - Good news

Well, the bad news is: my important event did not happen today.
The good news is: some accessories were found today.
The bad news is: I have to wait another four days for the big day to come.
The good news is: I am using my accessories right now.

This should help me

I have alot to do and will need some extra muscles on my side. My living room needs an overhaul. Tomorrow is the day of changes. I can't wait!

I gotta clean my living room...

...by Saturday...2 more days.

I am trying something new.

A long time ago, my mom told me how her aunt would make home made root beer. That always intrigued me. Well, I found some recipes and decided to try making soda yesterday.

The dark one is root beer. The light one is creme soda.

I hope they taste good. I'll let you know! . . .

4 days...

...until the big day!

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! That statement means different things to different people.

For some, Memorial Day is just the weekend that starts summer. A time for cookouts and get-togethers. The weekend to open the pool. A day off from work. A day to honor those who lost their lives in battle.

I do not know of any soldiers who have died in war. I do not have to make a trek to the grave of a loved one who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Thank you to all who have served in our armed forces. If it weren't for those who fought for our freedoms over the centuries, we would live in a very different country today.

Happy Memorial Day.

A picture is worth 1000 words...

Sparkie is modeling the purple knit pull over and Tiki is sporting the blue tweed knit coat. I don't think they like them very much. What do you think?

5 day weekend

This is a holiday weekend, of course, but for me, it is a little more than that. I have, not 3, but 5 days off! Hooray!!! Today is going to be the work day. I have alot planned and we'll see if it all gets done.

First, I'll throw a load of wash in while I go have a cup of coffee with my mother. If there was more time to do that kind of thing, I certainly would do it way more often. My mom is the best and I love fitting visits in with her. Then, I want to get my groceries under control but have to be home by 1:00. My niece is stopping by to pick up her Stampin' Up order from me. After that, it's yard detail time: putting down landscaping fabric, weeding, mulching, etc. Then I have to clean all the winter debris off of my deck so we can sit out there and have summer fun for weeks to come.

Wow, so much for a "day off". At least the next 4 days will be free and clear.

Who Dunnit

We found these sweet Converse sneakers for Vince. He got both white and black hightops about a month ago.

Today was the day to wear the black pair. They were on the floor in the kitchen, and as he was getting ready to put them on, he saw one of the shoe laces was chewed on and was almost severed in two. This, needless to say, made us very unhappy this a.m.

Is that a cat action, or is the dog to blame? We have an idea . . . who would you proclaim as guilty?

How can I talk about a baby . . .

and not show a picture?

This is little Landon. All together now.... awwwwww.

He is 5 days old today. I got to meet him for the first time this afternoon. He was rather busy moving his arms and yawning and crying and stuff like that. Fortunately, I arrived only moments after the poopy diaper was changed and he was done spitting up and burping. Good timing means everything when it comes to dodging poopy diapers.

The stories started flying about the time in the hospital, who was in the delivery room, contractions, dialations, most effective pushing procedures, epidurals..... None of which are exactly my area of expertise and normally I get woozy thinking about hospitals. I would rather go to the dentist, and we know how I feel about that! Nevertheless, they were Sarah's stories, and I was interested in hearing them.

As Landon became cute and quiet, I was offered a moment to "hold the baby". Again, not a task that I am totally comfortable with, but I said I would take him. The moment he was placed in my arms, he started to cry. Go figure. I guess babies can just tell that I am a cat and small dog person.

Twelve

What does the number 12 remind you of? Here's what came to my mind:

12 inches in a foot

12 tribes of Israel

12 months in a year

12 disciples

12 hours on a clock

12 string guitar

12 notes in an octave

12 items in a dozen

12 gears on a mountain bike

12 days of Christmas

But the most important one is:

12 years married this weekend. I love you Vince! Thanks for the best twelve years and we're still going strong!

Welcome, baby Landon

For those of you who know Sarah, she finally went to the hospital yesterday morning. She was a week overdue and was SO ready to be done being pregnant. After an entire day of waiting, I finally got the call that mommy and baby were fine.

Landon Mark arrived at 10:38 p.m. and weighed in at 9 pounds and 12 ounces. Sarah was hoping to have him on the day of the 14th, since her and her brother's birthdays landed on the 14th as well (but in different months).

We are so happy for you, Sarah and Jeremy! Welcome, baby Landon!

Lawn and Garden battles......

I am told that the time to spread your weed and feed fertilizer is when the forsythia bushes are in bloom. You know what forsythia bushes are, right? The ones that get covered with the yellow blooms and whenever someone sees one they get all warm and fuzzy inside and say, "Oh my, look at that. How beautiful! Spring is here!". For those of us who have, or have ever had, a forsythia bush know how weed-like they are and will only be blooming beautifully for about 10 days, and then you are stuck with something that looks more like a dwarfed, green, hyper-active yucca tree for the rest of the year. Thankfully, I do not have one of these things in my yard.

Well, besides all that, I saw the yellow blooming forsythia bushes in the neighborhood, trucked myself over to the store and got my bag of weed and feed. I could barely lift it because it weighed around 45 lbs and I never have to lift anything by myself that is heavier than my very overweight 15 pound cat whose name, oddly enough, is Mouse. After getting home with the granules that will transform my lawn into a sea of luscious green goodness, I barely lifted the bag out of the trunk, poured it into our handi-dandy spreader and went to town. Oh man! I was a-weedin' and I was a-feedin' and I was so proud of myself because it was going to rain that evening, and my timing was just perfect!

It has been a week since I put that stuff down. It has not rained. I can only hope that the morning dew has made it ever-so-slowly dissolve into the ground so it can do it's work. My spreader adventures are not over, though. The next thing to administer is the grub-ant-flea-tick-spider-chigger-webworm-whitefly-earwig-aphid-mealybug-mosquito killer, all of which live quite happily in our yard and Sparkie manages to come in contact with on a regular basis. I will not elaborate on THOSE stories.

In memory of a real heroine

I read an article online at Yahoo News today and felt it appropriate to give honor to an amazing woman who lived through and sacrified everything during most horrible times.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Irena Sendler, 98, a Polish woman who saved thousands of Jewish children during World War Two by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, died in the Polish capital on Monday after a long illness, local media said.

Using her position as a social worker, Sendler regularly entered the ghetto, smuggling around 2,500 children out in boxes, suitcases or hidden in trolleys. The children were then placed with Polish families outside the ghetto, created by Nazi Germany in 1940 for the city's half a million strong Jewish population, and given new identities.

But in 1943 Sendler, who led the children' section of the Zegota organization which helped Jews during the war, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. She only escaped execution when Zegota managed to bribe some Nazi officials, who left her unconscious but alive with broken legs and arms in the woods.

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year but, despite her bravery, she denied she was a hero. "The term 'hero' irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little," Sendler said in one of her last interviews.

Reading this article gave new meaning to some words for me: Integrity. Love. Standing-up-for-the-weak. Sacrifice. Making-a-difference. Persecution. Honor.

Irena Sendler. Thank you. We will not forget.

It's a busy weekend

Ah..... Mother's day weekend is upon us.

I tried to start early and went to see my Mom last night after work. I put Sparkie and the humongous hanging basket of blooming fuscias in my car and zipped over to spend some time with her and to give her a head start on the Mother's Day celebrations. The basket was promptly hung on their front porch for maximum viewing pleasure.

After that, had four stores to go to before getting home to make dinner so I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked. Fortunately, I was able to get two things accomplished in one store, which saved me about 20 - 30 minutes of additional driving, parking, walking, hunting, finding, purchasing, walking, and driving again. Gotta love the little things when they come your way!

Today, I have to get all the supplies ready for the Stampin' Up party that I am directing on Monday night. Also have to go over the songs for church tonite and tomorrow morning. Rehearsal is at 3:30 but since we are early birds, we will be there around 3:00.

Tomorrow, we will be home by 1:30. I have to make gluten free brownies, which are heavy and rich like fudge and super fabulous with milk or coffee. Then, with brownies in hand, at 5:30 we are going to a wedding. It is for my oldest nephew and will be a small, family only event. Best of everything to you, Scott and Ethel!

Then there is the possibility that my oldest niece will go into labor this weekend too. She was due last Wednesday so their little baby boy, Landon, should be here any day now. Just waiting for that phone call!

So this is way more than your typical Mother's Day weekend. It is like a musical, artsy, expectant, culinary Mother's day with a wedding on top. Should be one for the books!

Lawn and Garden battles......

Well, I officially pulled out the ol' riding lawn mower and mowed the lawn this week...
after I picked up about 927 sticks out of the yard....
it actually took me about 45 minutes to clean up the sticks, branches and limbs (yes, limbs) from our little plot of earth...
the whole time I was doing this, I was thinking of how we used to pick rocks from the fields before we could do plantings, and how much of a lousy job that was, and somehow this was just as bad.....
only sticks are lighter than rocks.....
after squatting, standing up, and tossing the sticks to the edge of the yard about 100 times, I eventually resorted to staying squatted and hiking them through my legs, like a football player throwing the football to the quarterback or the kicker...
some of the sticks fell to the earth with enough speed to impale into the ground 4 inches...
Sparkie was with me the entire time, but was absolutely no help to me...
at one point, I felt like those army guys who were sent to Roswell to clean up the debris from the crashed flying saucer on Mack Brazzell's ranch....
there were bumble bees all over the place....
I hope I don't have a nest of them somewhere close by...
I really hate bees....
last year, there was a bumble bee nest in the ground in our backyard...
the only thing that kept me going was the notion that when I was done picking up the sticks, I could ride the mower....
kind of like a reward at the end of a horrible time of torture...
and that's what I did when I was done....
I got to mow over some bumble bees...
did I mention that I really hate bees?....
regardless of all my work, there were still lots of sticks on the ground that I mowed over.....
I will have to pick them up next time.

Good Thought

The path God has for you will never take you where His grace will not sustain you.

Matters of the Heart - part 5 of ?

Jeremiah was the prophet of God during some of the most difficult times in the Old Testament. Jerusalem fell and the Hebrews were in a period of exile to the Babylonian empire. It seemed that anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Ever been there?

His messages during these disruptive times were full of passion, belief, and conviction. We find a very interesting form of the word heart in many of his messages. Look at chapter 9 verse 8, "Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit; with his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush." The word used here is qereb (keh' reb) and it means nearest part, center, midst, inward thoughts.

This word is used all through the Old Testament, but not always as the word heart. It is the same word used when Sarah was told that she would bear a child but "laughed within herself". It was used when Joshua was told by God that "there is an accursed thing in the midst of Israel". It's form spoke of the wisdom of Solomon - "they saw the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment". It is also used when speaking of the inward parts of the sacrificial animals that were burnt for an offering to God. Interesting.

I found two forms of the word heart in Psalm 51:10. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. The first word for heart is Leb, which we went over in part 2 of this study. The second one, spirit, is qereb. This is interesting, because we think that if our heart is right, then we are good to go. Well, there is always more to attain when you are a Christ follower. Allowing Christ to hold the center of your heart is definately step one. We still need more work though. We can speak the Word and declare peace, but still have the ability to harbor disbelief and deceit within our spirit.

The all-consuming fire of God's holiness will continue to burn, whether we have anything to offer to it or not. Allow Him to cleanse and renew every part of you, even down to the inward thoughts. Give Him your sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. He loves you to the deepest level - to qereb. How far will we go with qereb?

Stampin Up

Happy month of May!

The next Stampin Up party will be on May 12th at 7:00 p.m.
We are going to make a dark-light card and an item which I haven't decided on yet.

Do you have the Baroque Motifs stamp set? Bring it along, we will be using it this time.

Let me know if you can make it by May 9th, so I can be sure to have enough supplies for everyone. Hope to see you there!