I'm Thinking...

I'm thinking I should write a blog post.

It's been quite a few days since I've written a blog post.
(Not that THAT'S any great revelation. It's always been "quite a few days since I've written a blog post.)

The truth is - I have nothing to write which is worthy of a blog post.

So perhaps I should move on...

But before I do...



This is a photo of the magnolia flowers that WERE on our tree before the killer frost got them the other day. Now they're all brown and wilted and pitiful.

I said to Brillo Man last night, "Have you seen our magnolia tree? It's ruined. The frost wilted all the flowers. It's too bad. I hate it when we have a Spring like this. It happens all the time. The weather gets warm and the flowers bloom and then we get hit with a frost and everything dies."

He replied, "I see a few white blooms still."

"Yeah, well that's because those are the new buds that hadn't opened yet. But the tree, in all it's gorgeous beauty....it's ruined."

And that's pretty much how the conversation ended. And then just now, as I was posting this photograph...I started to think about the love of Jesus. Just when we think all is lost, or ruined, or wilted, or destroyed....He brings new life. There are those of us, who, at times, may still refuse to see the new blooms. But then there are those who are able to say, "I see a few white blooms still."

My prayer for today is that I will look BEYOND the wilted, withered mess of things - and see the potential that my husband saw...and that GOD sees.

Have a blessed day everyone. For now, I am moving on....to look for the white blooms...

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Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
-Isaiah 43:19a (NKJV)

...the Contemporary English Version
reads this way:

I am creating something new.

There it is! Do you see it?

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Jesus Spake

So, I was minding my own business... making the rounds on some of the Sisterhood blogs and thinking that I probably should head to bed because it was almost midnight and I have a ton of things to do for my class tomorrow....and just at that precise moment...I nearly jumped out of my skin when my phone emitted a VERY LOUD, "AHHHHHH!!!!" Sorta like the sound of angels singing (only different.) And this thing pops up on my phone?!?!:



How odd was that??

A little creepy even....
I'm going to bed!

ER ...in the wee hours of the morning

Last night, I ended up in the Emergency Room - again. Complications not from my broken nose and banged up face, but from my banged up right knee. I was convinced I had a blood clot. It felt very warm to the touch, I was running a low-grade fever and my leg was extremely painful. Two hours and an ultrasound later, it was determined I do not have a blood clot. Yeah!! AND...the ER doc pulled the packing out of my nose---oh, how much better it feels without all that cotton stuffed inside!

While I was sitting there, in the wee hours of the morning, the Lord filled my heart with a song....one of my favorites by CeCe Winans....His Strength is Perfect. Oh, how I needed to embrace those lyrics as I sang quietly in the exam room.



I let the words of the song settle into my spirit as I sang. And when the ER doc arrived with the good news that there was no clot, I raised my hands and said, "Praise God!" I then said to the ER doc, "We have an amazing God!"....as he looked at me kind of dumbfounded. I said, "Shake your head and agree with me Doctor, we have an amazing God!"

"Who knows why we go through the things we do," I turned to my friend who was with me as the doctor left the room, and said, "it just may be that I endured this whole fall/broken nose/bruised knee so that I could plant a seed in that doctor's heart!"

God is good.

At War.

So, this morning before church, I was sitting in the parking lot in my van while my spirit was at war with the enemy. My mind was going several directions at once and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I needed to get some control before I stepped through the doors of our church.

I sent a text to Pat and asked her to please pray. She responded that she would pray even before she had her morning coffee! (That's huge!) While she was praying in Michigan, I was praying in Pennsylvania....and then there was a breakthrough. I suddenly felt a huge wave of the presence of the Lord and the tears began to flow at precisely the same time I received a text from Pat which read, "I am at peace. God is touching you right now." OH...the amazing love of our Lord!

I was able to attend church...although honestly, it was difficult because the Lord's presence was tangible - it was difficult for me to sit! At one point, our pastor called me out and said she could see God's glory all over me and asked what it was that the Lord had for me to share with the congregation. I was able to share a vision He was giving me - part of which contained the army in the heavens doing battle for us - similar to what Elisha must have seen!


What a tremendous blessing! Forever and always I will be amazed at our Great God and how He orchestrates our lives. Here was my dear friend in Michigan, available and willing to pray with me across the miles, and the Lord used her tremendously to impact our little congregation in Pennsylvania. It is now hours later and I'm still basking in the glory of God's presence. He is amazing. I am so glad and humbled to be called a daughter of the Most High.

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And Elisha prayed, and said,
“Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”
Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
-II Kings 6:17, NKJV
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Where's my GPS?

I got lost this morning. Not on the road, but in the Land of Blog. Well, I wasn't exactly lost. I knew exactly where I was - visiting Vicki. What I didn't know was how the journey would effect me.

...Those of you who know me, know that I am ear-deep in books and papers and deadlines and assignments as I pursue my Master of Arts in Professional Counseling. The amount of time spent in this pursuit has been extreme - taking way more time than I initially thought it would. The technical writing has been intense with very little room for creativity. I'm an artist - 'creativity' oozes from me. There are moments in my writing for school that I feel completely quenched - yet I do know that I'm not to quit. God has made that perfectly clear, "There is a method to this madness," I hear from Him.

However, my heart is longing to break free and write and paint and flow with all the things that are inside my soul. I need to find a balance. I've had to set aside my huge, creative-writing style project and focus on technical, clear, concise, often dry and boring verbiage in writing "graduate level" papers. I've had to set aside my art. In a sense, I've set aside a huge part of what makes me ME.

Yet the Holy Spirit whispers that I must press on. "There are many whose lives you will touch - people who need to heal - people who will relate to your life and your story and you need to better understand how to help them," He says. And then I'm reminded of the young man in our youth group....who (although he doesn't know it) is crying out for help - help that I could offer based on what I've experienced in my life --yet there is a part of me that says, I don't have all the necessary tools to counsel this young man. And God says, "School. Don't quit. There is a method to this madness, and his name is -----."

Several years ago, I drew a picture of a young man. Today, I have given him a name.

I will not post it here, for there may be those who would recognize the name and I would not want to in any way reveal his identity. The Lord reminds me that it is for this young man, and for many other young people and adults who struggle....that I am to complete my Master's program.

So, in the meantime, pray that I am able to discover a balance - that I leave room for an outlet for my creative side - whether it be in my writing or art or blogging...or creating fun things with my daughter...such as the box we made to hold her Valentines....


....ah...the joy of being "lost" in the left side of my creative brain....

...time to find my way back to the right side....my next class begins soon.
It's all in His perfect timing, after all...
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You do have creative gifts.
They are foundational to your personality,
your ability to function from day to day
and your life callings.
Their discovery may have been delayed by hard times
or an oppressive childhood.
You may have been denied the opportunity
to develop your gifts.
But creative gifts are resilient
and quite patient.
They appear when the time is right
and can adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Even after being undiscovered
or neglected for decades,
they can walk onstage in brilliant colors
and dazzle you and those who are your witnesses.
~ Vinita Hampton Wright,
The Soul Tells a Story
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Elephant Number Three

In honor of the completion of my research paper for my graduate class (two weeks early, I might add!), this little guy is sounding loud the celebratory trumpeting trunk! Can't you tell?


Finally...another elephant!

That's it folks...that's all I've got...tired and going to bed!

Elephant Number Two

The second edition in my "Elephant" series... (I've decided to make this a series....) Here's how it goes. Some person in blog land who shall remain nameless (you know who you are...) has suggested that I be more consistent with blog posts.

Here's the deal. I'm in school now. The end.

Where was I? ...oh yes, the elephant... SO....today's elephant (actually you get two for the price of one today...) SO...today's elephants are also residents of a shadow box somewhere in the recesses of my home.

I have no idea from whence they came. They're small (note edge of penny in the background.)

I have not named them. Suggestions?!

Elephant....

I am taking a break from school work to post this tiny elephant....approximately two inches in length, he sits in one of my shadow boxes. He's one of dozens of elephants I have...most are packed away....been collecting them since I was seven. Sheesh! That's a looonnnngggggg time!! Pay no attention to the dust and cobwebs! Okay...now it's back to school work for me!

Counting Down....

Two days. School starts in two days.

BUT...I have already read and studied two chapters in my text for one of my TWO classes.

I sense a theme here....has something to do with TWO.

Don't ask me what though, because my brain is fried from studying and I can't possibly think of even one witty or profound thing to say.

I will say this....I received an email from my professor - a "welcome" email, if you will. In it she said, "I love to see how the text of this course plays out in my office." (She's a Licensed Professional Counselor and our text is Human Growth and Development).

She encouraged each of us to "not blow off this course - especially if we are called by God to be counselors..." And as I read those words...I immediately felt the TANGIBLE presence of God in my living room! In fact, even as I type those words now, I am feeling the Lord's presence. He is amazing! Every time I turn around I'm getting confirmation that I'm headed down the right path.

A Licensed Professional Counselor... In time, that will be me...hoping to one day help heal the brokenhearted...

And despite my fear and trepidation...I can do this! Me and God. Ah...the TWO of us. I knew that there was a theme!!

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Brillo Man had an emotional weekend.

He had to say goodbye to an old friend.

A friend who has been with him through thick and thin.

Through sunshine and rain.

Through the muck and mire.

In all kinds of weather and in all kinds of storms.

He sold his beloved excavator. gasp!!

Whatever will he do now when he's bored? He will have no 'friend' to help him dig holes all over our property. Alas.

Here he is - posing for one last photo with his friend:



Driving it up onto the buyer's trailer:



Reluctant to leave...



The new owner driving away with Brillo Man's old friend... such a sad, sad day.

Psalm 91

What's in those Eggs Anyway??!

A friend recently inquired what it was that we feed our chickens because the eggs are so very good. She gasped with horror and disbelief when she discovered that we "slop" our chickens....in much the same way that a farmer slops pigs. In other words...we feed them all our table scraps. Well, there are a few that Bentley enjoys...but most of our leftovers make their way into the chicken coop.

As a result of that, we have VERY LARGE chicken eggs. Seriously. Some of the eggs are as large as duck eggs. And they have double yolks. And the shells are super duper hard - it takes a greater effort to break them.

Our farm fresh eggs are delicious - so much more tasty than the eggs one can purchase at the grocery store! In fact, I won't even eat eggs anymore in a restaurant since there is no way that they can compare with our Farm Fresh Chicken-Slopped Eggs!!



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Yep! They for sure are sloppin' those birds...
Just look at the size of those yolks!
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Back in Our Hands

"Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude." Luke 9:16

Here's a thought: When Jesus took the loaves and the fishes from the young boy before the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 he blessed them and then handed them back to the disciples and expected them to disperse them to the crowd. Once again...He blessed them and put them back in the disciples' hands. Ah...how many times does the Lord bless things and then expect us to act in order for the miracle to occur?

...just a point to ponder.

Dolce Far Niente

Italians have a saying - Dolce Far Niente, which simply means:

The art of doing sweet nothing.

Oh, how I love that! It's so much nicer to think of time spent doing nothing as an ART rather than considering it a bunch of wasted time! For one, I am Italian and being an artist, I am all about

...I'm thinking I must now go and CREATE!!

Cold

So, I get myself all bundled up to face the frigid air as I walked Bentley this morning...

Coat - check

Hat - check

Boots - check

Gloves - um. no. That's why I have pockets.

Did I mention that I'm allergic to the cold? No? Well, I'm allergic to the cold. Really. Seriously. I break out in hives if any skin is exposed to cold for any length of time. And the hives are not fun. They are extremely itchy and extremely annoying. But - this morning I was prepared! I knew it was cold outside and I had every inch of skin covered (well, except for my hands....that's why I have pockets.)

Halfway up the driveway, I decided to take a few photos of Bentley. He is cute, after all. So, I snapped away with the camera on my iPhone. Of course, doing so would obviously cause me to have to remove my hands from my pockets.



Ah...I know what you're thinking... You're thinking...yep, now she's going to get hives on her hands. She should've worn gloves!!

Nope. By some miracle I did not get hives on my hands - despite the frigid ten degree temperature with a minus something wind chill. No, instead I got a huge hive - ON MY EYELID! Caused my eye to swell shut. There's a new one. Must've been the act of LOOKING at all that cold snow!

On my "to do" list today: Ordering a Ski Mask

Today.

The tree is still up.

Anybody want in on the pool as to when I'll take it down? No idea when it will happen.

Today, I made chili - in the crock pot - with ground chuck which I had cooked several weeks ago and stuck in the freezer. I opened up some cans of kidney beans and garbanzo beans and sauce and added a bunch of spices and chopped up a green pepper. Easiest and fastest chili I've ever made in my life. I'm thinking I'm going to start stockpiling cooked ground chuck in my freezer.

Snow. We've got it. Lots of it. It's white and it's cold and I stayed indoors all day because of it. Well, I did walk Bentley halfway up the driveway while wearing my PJs. Here's proof - note the snow is covering the boots. Did I mention we have lots of it?:



Oh, and I drove Olivia the entire way up the driveway so she didn't have to stand in a snowstorm while she was waiting for the bus this morning. (I am a good Mother. Sometimes.) But other than those two times...I stayed in.

I started to clean off my desk. I found a bunch of things that I didn't know I was missing. Amongst them were these items:



I have no idea why I had plastic Easter eggs on my desk. So don't ask.

Let's see...what else? I've had approximately 14 hot flashes thus far (ten of them being in the last two hours...AFTER I ate a bowl of spicy chili.) (I knew that ingesting spicy foods can increase the likelihood of hot flashes. I didn't care. Then.)

I worked on the afghan I'm crocheting for Olivia. I'll post a photo when it's complete. Don't look for it any time soon.



So...that was pretty much my day. What did you do?

Perspective

As is customary at this time in my life, with the New Year now upon us, I have been thinking -- about a lot of different things. While I enjoyed the Christmas season and all the festivities that went along with our family celebration, I am glad that time has marched on and I can now get back into my regular routine of doing nothing special. It feels good to be sitting in my favorite spot in my reclining sofa with my laptop on my lab and a sleeping dog at my feet. Brillo Man and I just watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Olivia is in her bedroom singing along to some silly song in her head and I'm trying to blog.

Aha. And then Olivia appears. "Mom, will you please log onto PowerSchool and check my grades?" All A's and B's. Good for her! I'm so proud of her. And then my heart starts to beat a little faster as I begin to think about what awaits me in just two short weeks... I'll be concerned about my own grades. I'll be starting work on my Masters Degree in Professional Counseling. It's been years since I've been in school. I have moments when I think... "what were you thinking?!...signing up to take classes?...and GRADUATE classes no less??!!" I'll have to do a tremendous amount of writing. And I'm told that my writing will have to follow APA Format (whatever that is!) Oh. Help. My nice quiet evening of sitting on the couch with my laptop in front of the TV with an old Alfred Hitchcock episode suddenly turned into a nightmare.

Did I ever tell you that I don't like to write? Seriously. There was the one time in college when I was required to write a paper for extra credit and my friend offered to write the paper for me (because she was student teaching and had no finals for which to study and she was bored!) And I jokingly told her "sure! write my paper for me!" - and then she actually DID write the paper! It was an ethnography on the Yanomamo Tribe - for my Introduction to Anthropology class. Why in the world I took an intro to anthro class is beyond me. I needed an elective. I was told it would be a fun course. And it was - caused me to actually consider becoming an anthropologist for a second or two. But I digress. My friend did such an awesome job on the paper which I turned in with my name on it...that I received an "A" grade. An "A" grade on a paper which I never wrote. (Don't think that this hasn't bothered me for years - decades even! - for it has!)

So now, in just a few short days, I will be embarking upon a graduate studies career. And I will have to write papers. A LOT of papers. ...I'm wondering if my friend would consider writing my papers. I know where she lives. I could ask... ugh.

And then I started to think that perhaps I need to change my perspective. You see, the Lord has called me to do this Masters thing. It's not anything I came up with on my own. So...He equips those whom He calls. Right? Right. So writing all these papers will not be such a big deal. When I take a few steps back and look at it from God's perspective...it's a small thing.

Sorta like the wind turbines we saw while visiting Brillo Man's family in New York. Small? No. HUGE! They tower approximately 533 feet in the air!! But when one steps back...they don't seem all that menacing.


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This is a small thing in the eyes of the LORD...
-2 Kings 3:18
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In the Secret....

..in the quiet place...

...in the stillness, You are there...




Merry Christmas! May the Love of the Lord always be recognizable to you! For His love is always present...He is always near!

A Giveaway!!

One can never have TOO MUCH yarn. Trust me.

Brillo Man, however, would greatly disagree...just ask him how many times he's moved boxes and bins of yarn that I have stored in various spots in the house! On second thought, don't ask him. It will just get him going...and for heaven's sake, we don't need that!)

Anyway....I've entered a contest to win MORE YARN! Yahoo! You may enter also at the Red Heart with Love Yarn Giveaway site.

And now, since I've shared this with you, I get an extra entry! Yahoo!! Perhaps I'll win! Wouldn't that be great? Of course, then I would have to buy more yarn - because what could one possibly create with only three skeins...hmmm...I'm thinking that's their point...give us a few skeins and then we buy more! It's all good...for after all, one can never have TOO MUCH yarn!

It's Finished

The painting has been finished for quite some time....finished it the week before Brillo Man and I left on our cruise. Many updates to follow...but for now, here's the final photo.