Got Junk?

While Brillo Man was working his paying job last evening, I was busy creating. (No - my studio isn't done so don't ask.)

Brillo Man is working really hard collecting scrap. He is now the resident expert in dumpster diving. Hey --the mortgage business is NOT good right now and as they say, 'ya gotta do what ya gotta do!' Our working loans are down - way down - and lenders are dropping like flies. On a daily basis we get emails from lenders saying that they're no longer in the business of funding loans. In fact, Countrywide's subsidiaries went out of business and Countrywide had to borrow money. They're one of the biggest lenders - number three as far as dollar amount loan funding is concerned.

So...ya Got Junk? Or as I prefer to say, "Got Junque?" --that spelling is oh so much more...Je ne sais quoi!

Here is a find - along with a bunch of other really neat things --but this was the neatest so far-- from this house that they're cleaning out and getting ready to sell.
One side is engraved "Alice" and the other "1887". Needless to say. We will NOT be scrapping this piece of metal! (you can click on the photo if you REALLY want to see the detail!)

Until the mortgage business improves, Brillo Man will continue with his paying job and I will create and sell my art!

Here are my latest card designs. When the finished cards are completed, they'll be listed on my etsy site. Stay tuned for more! I've got the creative "bug" now!

The Crunch is On

So...with all this talk all these months about my studio....the neat doors we're putting on the ceiling, etc... because of a billion other "priorities" - my studio has not been completed. In fact, it's FAR from started!

Brillo Man said to me two days ago --"This week, I want to get your studio finished." Yeah! Hooray!! Now finally, perhaps with Olivia starting school next week, I'll have some time to get back to my passion of creating!

Here are the "before" photos (All of you who are 'neat freaks' may not want to look - it could be too much for you!):









Some progress HAS been made --the garage door has been removed and two french doors put in it's place. The doorway to the next bay of the garage now has a door and not just an opening. Insulation has been added to the front wall. A pellet stove has been installed. We're not mentioning that all of that was done more than six months ago...

Of course, I'll share the "after" photos. (Brillo Man says one week --I say, don't look for the 'after' photos any time soon. - We still have to drive 60 miles to pick up the old doors which we bought for the ceiling --last summer. I hope the guy still has them!)

In the meantime, look for my art to appear on my etsy site. There are a couple of things there now --just so I could play around with listing.

I hope to get some good stuff listed in time for the Christmas shopping season!

...okay...off I go to work on THE STUDIO!

The First Day

Yesterday was Olivia's first day of Kindercamp.

Kindercamp is a program which our school district has initiated which helps ease kids into kindergarten - thereby hoping to deal with and alleviate any anxieties that the children may have about going to school.

Yesterday, Olivia woke up, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, excited to start her first day. We drove to the school and assembled in the gymnasium with all the other children and their parents. The students were soon ushered back to their classrooms, ready to begin their adventure. As they walked away and we watched them disappear down the hallway, my friend Jim said, "...there they go...with not even a wave goodbye..." It was then that I got a little bit teary-eyed - but managed to hold to together. After all, we parents would be in the school the entire morning and I would be driving Olivia home.



This morning, however, on day 2, Olivia woke up, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed and excited again because she was going to ride the school bus! I wish I wouldv'e been quick enough to capture the expression on her face when she pointed down the road and exclaimed, "Mommy, the school bus is coming!!" (Okay Mom, hold it together...this is, after all, just a 'dry run'. School doesn't REALLY start until the 28th....this is JUST kindercamp...) The bus moniter emerged and taught Olivia the safe way to board the bus and off they went, down the road. Destination: Adventure!


Now I'm faced with the long walk back down the driveway. Surprisingly, I took a few deep breaths, thanked the Lord for the beautiful morning, and tried to push out of my mind that I've just sent my baby girl out to face the world all on her own. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to cry and instead decided to take some pictures of the flowers growing along the way.

How beautiful they are - created by God just for me to enjoy this morning. But then I saw it - the flowers were crying.

Still - I'm okay...there is a lot that I'm going to be able to accomplish while Olivia is in school and this is going to be a good thing....

Then I came in and started typing...and did really well until I typed the words, "...I've just sent my baby girl out to face the world all on her own." It was then that I could no longer hold back my emotion. The tears are falling...she's in Your hands Lord. Keep her safe. My baby girl is growing up...

...but I don't have to like it.

wasted time....

It's 1:15 am.

Well, that's what time it is while I'm typing.

I'm about to fall asleep - but can't seem to pull myself away from this strange website.

...trying to think what I can put in my microwave...just for fun?

Love this --a complete waste of time and energy! (wasting time is what I'm all about!)

Which one is your favorite?
I think I'm partial to the marshmallows.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

The Great News of the day is that Kelly's EEG revealed NO sign of epilepsy!
They're weaning her off the meds and we're believing that this whole seizure thing was just a one-time incident - never to return again! Our God Reigns! Jehovah Rapha - The Lord Who Heals!!

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After a stressful day in our mortgage business world...Olivia decided that she was going to perform a Ballet for any and all who were interested. She lined up quite a few of her stuffed animals, requested that I play some appropriate ballet music and then she and Ballerina Bear did a dance after her brief introduction:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, announcing Olivia!
I will now begin my dance for Jesus!
Please take your seats
so the dance can begin!"

The entire time she was dancing, she was also singing another of her 'made-up' songs..."God is holy, I will worship Him, He is holy, He is holy, We will praise Him and dance for Him for He is holy..."

She makes my heart smile - and is ever so good at reminding me that life is so much more than mortgages, bills and worries about finances.
God is good.
All the time!

Here she is, following the performance, with some of her "fans".


Left to Right: Purpley CareBear, Olivia-Prima Ballerina, Orangey Bear, Valentine Bear, Dolly Lolly, Dolly Polly, cousins of the ever-beloved Dolly (note, Dolly appears as though she has been dragged through the mud --can we EVER give her a bath? NO! Her trusted ever-present companion...just wait until school starts!...Dolly and Oxyclean are going to have some time to get to know each other!), Bob and Larry, and "the Orange Bear that those nice people at Stuffmart gave her after they won it in the crane thing." Not Pictured: Dolly Molly (Dolly's sister) and Birthday Hippo - both of whom were taking a nap. Also note her legs --with the "tattoos" of Ariel and Belle --which are obviously wearing off. "MOM! I HAVE TO GET NEW TATOOS AND YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT PICTURE AGAIN!"

More Fans:

...And now the encore...


Our Prima Ballerina with Ballerina Bear

Wardrobe provided by Grandma Leanne

The Rock

In the midst of uncertainty
there is God

when you can’t possibly anticipate what’s next
there is God

when the entire world seems restless
there is God

The Rock
that consumes all fears
of the unknowing
restless things
in this life

stand firm
the ground beneath you is solid
when you’re standing on The Rock

---

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name
On Christ, The Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand...

—Edward Mote (1797-1874)

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As Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet, it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." -Matthew 7:24-25

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Finally Doing That "Tag" Thing....

Eight Random Facts About Myself:

1) I spend too much time
on any given day
searching for gray hairs
and plucking them out.



2) I can’t think of any day
when I haven’t been
in denial of something.



3) My “Top Ten Things to Do Before I Die” list
includes taking a ride in a hot air balloon.



4) I don’t have a favorite color,
although Olivia INSISTS that it’s green.
(Although if Brillo Man
should ever want
to buy me some jewelry...
the Emerald IS my birth stone after all...)



5) If I read one book per week,
it would take me more than five years
to read all the books that I own.



6) As I type this, (at 1:24 am)
I am wishing I had
a piece of sausage and black olive pizza
from Pizza Joe’s.



7) I don’t like snowball fights.
(It’s all fun and games
until someone loses an eye!)



8) One of my favorite scents
is the smell of Crayola crayons.



(This Next photo is just for you Pat...)

Update on Kelly

Hello All!

We so appreciate all your prayers and concern for Kelly!

She is home from the hospital and will be staying with Brillo Man's parents (her grandparents) for several days. She has an appointment with a neurologist on the 9th. They haven't given her a specific diagnosis, although they've prescribed Dilantin which is an anti-seizure medication used to treat epilepsy.

It is beyond my scope of comprehension why they haven't told her anything and are waiting until she sees the neurologist. They haven't given her any indication at all as to the results of the myriad of tests that they performed. ?

Having worked at a HUGE university teaching hospital where things are addressed with expediency...this is very frustrating!!!

Anyway --that's the update. We appreciate your continued prayers and of course, I'll keep you all updated as I know more.

Urgent Prayer Request

Hello all -

Brillo Man's daughter, Kelly (age 21), is currently in the Emergency Room undergoing tests. She had two seizures this morning and is understandably very frightened.
I appreciate all your prayers.

Is it time for Shirley yet?!

I sat down at my computer with the intention of reading my email and then posting a blog.

A friend sent me a link to this video...

...there's no amount of my blog rambling that can top this...
Be Blessed!!

Praise Him

Let my mouth
be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory
all the day.
-Psalm 78:1

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Quilt by Lisa Ellis

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Trash to Treasure?

Sara got me thinking about rubbish. Although the rubbish of which I'll write is not at all the same as the rubbish of which she writes...

Sometimes rubbish is good... (I think)

Brillo Man has a new nickname: Junk Man.

His newest "hobby" is taking other people's discarded junk and turning it into money. Okay --so he's made several hundred dollars hauling people's scrap metal to the recycling plant. I don't complain when he walks in and hands me a big wad of cash. But perhaps this last time he went a little overboard...

Yesterday, he went to pick up someone's yard sale leftovers. A pickup truck and a trailer FULL of junk. Amongst this treasure were two moldy ottomans, some moldy clothes, some moldy encyclopedias, ten or twelve moldy-smelling video tape holders, a huge box of moldy shoes, a couple of moldy, chipped angel figurines, a bouquet of moldy, plastic flowers and a dozen moldy ice cube trays (some of which were cracked). Did I mention that most of this stuff was moldy?!


Also included in this truckload and trailer load of JUNK were some kind of electric motors. A treasure!! (don't ask me, I don't know anything about electric motors but Brillo/Junk Man walked around with a gleeful grin muttering something about copper...) There was also a sweeper, some windows (with metal on the frame) and a couple of other metal objects. Brillo/Junk Man spent considerable time with his magnet checking to see if things were steel or aluminum or whatever. (Since this new hobby began, he goes nowhere without a magnet in his pocket.)

I failed to mention that there were a couple of items that we did keep: the hand-carved wooden hummingbird ornament nestled in the bottom of a soup mug surrounded by the moldy and worn out shoes. No, I'm not keeping the shoes (wrong size) but I did elect to keep the bird and the soup mug. (As Olivia has given Brillo Man yet another nickname, "The King of Soups", we use a lot of soup mugs.) (But that's a subject for another post)...

As I type this, Junk Man is outside tearing apart the electric motors to get to the motherlode - the COPPER! Do you have any idea how much 'they're' paying for a pound of copper??!?!

Earlier today, Olivia and went to the mission --with the moldy things that we thought may be slightly valuable. The mission wouldn't even take half of what we had in the van. So, I brought it home, wondering what Brillo/Junk Man was going to do with it all. I assumed he'd burn it as 95% of the leftover mission rejects are burnable.

But no.

He's buried the encyclopedias somewhere in the "back 40". He says he's using them as 'mulch or fertilizer' for the tree that he's going to plant - or has planted. (I'm not quite sure but I think that he's thinking that by placing those moldy encyclopedias in the ground out will sprout a tree of knowledge of good and evil.")

So now he's burying the junk.

Pat --our 'state park' is now a landfill.


....meanwhile, the 'artist' in me is picturing all kinds of neat junk sculptures we could make!


....and I think I've failed to mention that on Thursday, I'm driving to a nearby town to pick up three bowling balls which a fellow freecycler is leaving for me in the front seat of her wrecked Chevy Blazer. (The bowling balls are for my 'garden sculptures') Wait! She did tell me that her Blazer is wrecked! I wonder if she'd let Brillo/Junk Man haul it away....

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I will lay waste the land...
--Leviticus 26:32

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Addendum: I went outside and asked Brillo/Junk Man what was up?
His reply: "I just spent about an hour's worth of work making my fifty cents!"
I had just taken a sip of pop and spit it all over myself as I laughed!
Never a dull moment...

Lilies

Consider the lilies how they grow:
they toil not, they spin not;
and yet I say unto you, that Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these.
-Luke 12:27

---

photograph of the lilies growing in our 'state park'.

Unfolding the Rose

A friend sent this to me via email
and I thought it was too nice not to share:

Click below:

Unfolding the Rose

laying it down

in the silence

when all I hear is my heart beating

I call on Your Name

and listen.

the world is still

but my mind races on

wondering just how You're going to come through

this time.

You always do.

You're always faithful.

when it all seems impossible

when there's no way for me to figure it out

with final resolution

tonight, in the silence

I lay it all at Your feet

and wait

and listen

and know

that You are God.

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For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."
-Jeremiah 29:11

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The Rules

I have rules.
Rules by which I think everyone should live.
Some are hefty rules.
Some are puny rules.
But they’re all rules.
In my definition - a rule is not to be broken.

Here are some examples of some of my rules.
I won’t drive above the speed limit (unless no one is behind me).
(If someone is behind me, I won’t drive even one mph above
the posted limit and complain the entire time that the person behind
me is tailgating because, "you know, if I have to stop suddenly, they're going to run into me!") If there’s no one behind me –I drive whatever I
consider to be a safe speed - which could mean 50 mph on a 35 mph
country road on the occasion we’re running late to take Olivia to swimming lessons.
My justification? She’s only in the pool for 20-25 minutes of the scheduled 30 minute lesson as it is and dag nab it, I’ll be doggoned if she’s going to miss another minute because we’re running late. Besides, if the swimming instructors followed the rules and allowed the students in the water for the entire scheduled 30 minutes, then I wouldn’t have to break the aforementioned speed limit rule. (It’s their fault - not mine. I take no blame –but that’s a subject for another blog.)

I won’t open the mail until I use the proper letter opener - because I hate all those messy, torn envelope flaps which result from improperly opened mail. Brillo Man will attest to the fact that I have reprimanded him for sloppy letter opening - a huge infarction which should be punishable by something akin to scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush.

Which reminds me of my “scrubbing the kitchen floor” rules. One must first sweep every corner and under every cabinet with the whisk broom and dustpan BEFORE one gets out the vacuum cleaner (or as Olivia would say, the suck-up sweeper). Then you vacuum, then you get down on your hands and knees and wash and rinse the floor. If those steps are not followed, then I consider the floor to be improperly scrubbed. (I can’t recall ever scrubbing the kitchen floor in the home we live in now to be properly scrubbed....Brillo Man once got down on his hands and knees a few weeks ago, but I believe he left out the whisk broom step -thereby blowing any chance we had of the floor being scrubbed ala ‘the way I was raised to scrub a floor’.)

Here’s a rule. My stepdaughters bought me this awesome HUGE book of Sudoku puzzles for Mother’s Day. I have it in the master bathroom. Every morning, I work on a puzzle. Now here’s the rule –if I finish a puzzle, I am only allowed to place ONE number into the next puzzle before I rise to finish my morning routine. For one thing, if I got carried away with more numbers, my legs would be numb and I wouldn’t be able to walk. I know - too much information.

Here’s another rule. Don’t leave the ketchup out on the counter after use. Brillo Man almost always does this. My therapist has convinced me to “let it go.” My life has much less stress now that I no longer complain and mutter under my breath because the ketchup bottle has been left on the counter.

Here’s a rule: One is not permitted to walk around the house in one’s underwear. (“But MOM! I didn’t want to get spaghetti sauce on the new shirt that Grandma Leanne gave me for my birthday! Now may I puhleeze have my dessert?!”)

Another rule –no dessert until you’ve eaten your dinner.

And don’t get me started on the ‘NEVER end a sentence in a preposition rule’!

Enough about the rules . . . Brillo Man just brought in the mail. I have to go open it before it’s too late!!!!






These commandments that I give you today
are to be upon your hearts.
--Deuteronomy 6:6

Thanks to Pat for inspiring today's blog entry.