Mom comes home from the hospital today. Woohoo!
This lovely Salty Bag is for sale on my Etsy site.
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I had had a hope ‘chest’ for years. I started collecting things for it when I was in my senior year of high school. It was more of a collection of things to use when I loved out on my own, though, than things to be saved for my marriage. Good thing too because I didn’t get married until I was 37! lol When the big announcement was made or even while my husband and I were still dating, my mother made several things which I use, but cherish. Some embroidered pillow cases and ea towels, two of the tea towels I think someone helped themselves to as I can no longer find them. They may have walked off at a pot luck. This breaks my heart, not because of course of a monetary value, but because my mother now has arthritis in her fingers and can not make new ones to replace those which have been taken. I do still have one of the tea towels she made. It has a pretty blue teapot decoration and, yes, it does get used. I figure I may as well use my cute things as they probably would be sold at an estate sale when I die and someone else would use them for me later if I don’t use them now. Here it is.
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Here, not at all tea related, is a picture of some, ‘girls’ sunning themselves in a neighbor’s yard. I think it’s funny that two of them hopped the fence to lay in the grass (one was just out of camera range behind the building which is why you can’t see her).
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It’s Sunday. Time to go to church. I don’t particularly enjoy going to church. There, I said it. I’m a bit agoraphobic. Going out in public is difficult for me, hence the discomfort of going to church. I’ve never, ever, sprung out of bed feeling elated about going anywhere unless it’s on vacation.
When I get to church, there, waiting for me, is what I not so affectionately call, ‘The Gauntlet’ which is the door greeters waiting to shake your hand or hug you. Ack! I don’t know where that hand has been! Did you cough into it? Pick your nose? And now, you want to touch me with it? Oh yeah, germaphobe too. So, of course, people think I’m stand offish. Gee, why would THAT happen? THEN as if the gauntlet wasn’t enough torture, in the middle of worship, we have to turn around and greet each other. Maybe, instead of my little purse sized hand sanitizer, I should carry the big refill bottle I have in my linen closet. I’ll just cradle it in my arms as I walk in dispensing it like holy water. Bless you my child, take a squirt and rub it into your hands. Amen.
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“Your artistic expression tends to show up in flamboyant bursts. When you are feeling creative, it consumes your every thought and action. But just as quickly as the muse shows up, it leaves you and you are back to your relatively normal self.”
Corey Amaro over at Tongue in Cheek, is playing match maker. Why not go over and take a peek at how things are progressing? It’s very French, very romantic.
I was going to go to Patsy’s yesterday, purchase some goodies, bring them home and photograph them for you and place them on my blog for you to enjoy. Funny how sometimes things just don’t workout the way we plan. Through a series of ridiculous events, I got stuck on the side of an icy, snow packed steep hill for an hour! Tech Hubby (my hero!) had to come and dig me out then push me up the hill in his 4×4 Jeep. So the confection photos will have to wait but I leave you with images of a common sight in our city; deeroids as Tech Hubby calls them.
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Do you see what I see? Yeah! Let’s get closer. Okay!
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Wow! It really IS greener!
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Is she standing on a wind swept cliff awaiting the return of her captain, gazing longingly out to sea?
Or perhaps she’s looking for her servant who is late in bringing the tea tray. Really, how long must one wait for tea time around here? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bitsy Doodle is 14. She has cataracts.
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She held 7 puppies in her tummy 12 years ago. She’s had 8 mastectomies.
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She doesn’t like to hold still for photos when you’re supposed to be giving her attention. Can you see that tiny white spot on the tip of her nose? She wore off the coloring on the tip of her nose from, ‘grubbing’. She loves to root around my mom’s yard, I’m sorry to say, digging up and eating worms. Ew. Bitsy is a piece of business, as my mom would say. When you’re done sleeping, according to Bitsy’s clock, she will happily provide a wake up service and bark at you mercilessly until you get out of bed. Feeling stressed? In need of animal therapy? Bitsy will bark at you until you get the hint that you should touch her, then scoot just out of reach at the last minute. Isn’t this fun? When she was little, she, then her puppies when they came along, loved to play tug-o-war with my hair.
Ah, to have puppies hanging off my hair again, sigh, the good ol’ days.
Glass swan, hand blown.
Some times, we feel we need to be this; the finished product before we may come to the Lord for salvation. We see those around us who seem to have it together and we think, ‘I’m not like that so I’ll wait until I am before I accept the Lord or go to church.’ My friends, that’s like saying you’ll wait until you’re healed before you’ll go to see the doctor. That’s backwards. Besides, those swan looking people really don’t have as together as you might think, they just look good gliding around on the surface of the water, but underneath it all, they are paddling like mad trying to keep afloat.
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This man has collected ‘empties’ beer, wine and hard liquor bottles from restaurants and from the beaches of Cabo San Lucas, MX. He is breaking them down into smaller pieces. He is shattering them.
This is how we are, and this is how we can/should come to the Lord; broken, full or icky sticky stuff we never think could come off of us.
We ask ourselves, ‘but how can the Lord get ride of all that stuff? How can He make me clean again?
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Once the glass has been broken, it is placed in the super heated furnace wher eit melts and the paper labels burn off. Now that it is melted, it is ready to be used by the Master craftsman.
Into the furnace we go where all our labels are melted off;adulterer, murderer, thief, harlot, liar, glutton. It all burns away and we melt under His love. We no longer even look as we did before. We are not the same, but we are not yet done. What will we become and how will we get there?
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Like the glass, we are stretched and pulled out side of where we were, into a new shape that will not hold what was inside of us before. We are a new creation. When the Master Craftsman is done with us, we will not recognize ourselves.
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So, are you ready? Ready to go into the furnace? Ready to become a new creation in Christ?
If so, pray this prayer:
- “Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”