Donuts & Water

Strolling around Flower Mound,TX. Tiffany and  I came upon this sign letting us know what the little shopping area had to offer.... I got so tickled over the "Donuts & Water".... mmm mmmmm yummy...how absolutely appetizing is that?!!!  LOL....

Forget Tiffany and I getting a cup of  coffee with our donuts, heck, why not just get a glass of water!  :-) 

Hope your day has been extra super happy!  Mine has been!

Paying respect to regrets

My mom always said to try and live a life where you won't have regrets. Always say "I love you"... always hug, never leave angry, be aware of the fact that life is short and can end abruptly.  It wasn't just a casual thing she said, it was often said.  It seems that even still, even being taught to be mindful... I have just oodles of regrets. I often wonder if I have more regrets than most people...or am I average, below average.  Due to some circumstances in life I have a few people that when I think of them I have moments of sorrow ...  to Massie.... I really miss you... to Rick....I'm sorry I was so difficult, sorry for the way I acted..... to Johnathan...I'm just flat out sorry ....  To Cathy... you left this earth way to soon but somehow I just hope you know now that  I'm really sorry I was so careless about you....so immature-if I could repeat that time in life, I promise you I would do it differently.
 There's probably more............. but regarding relationships, those are my top 4 people that bring me the most sorrow, regret ....humility... pain.    

"Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future"  - Fulton Oursler

People will commonly say to not look back, don't keep licking your wounds...regret is a waste of energy....but I don't necessarily feel like regret is a waste of energy... I think its good to be able to look back and understand the consequences of our actions and to feel good or bad over them. To be so callous to look back or not look back  and not 'feel'...that just seems wrong to me.  I want to comprehend and understand that my actions had consequences to the journey I am on with Christ and people.  I want to be able to learn from my regrets...to remember...NOT to wallow in them and repeatedly kick myself but rather to learn from them and move forward and make sure the same thing does not happen again. I guess some of my regrets remain as little memorials in my head.  I do visit them. I remember. I am sorry. I walk away.  I have a very happy disposition.... I don't wallow.  However, I do visit, I do take my hat off...pay my respects...feel sorrow...walk away. And in those moments I vow that I will not repeat.  

Pretty little sleeper

Mid day nap!  :-)  We have been going going going... up late, early to rise.... she took an almost 4 hour much needed nap! Hopefully she will still want to go to bed on time as this is the first evening in a couple weeks we don't have to leave the house and I sure would like a 'normal' evening. 
 
  "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing." ~ I Corinthians 13: 2-3

Itty Bitty Spaces

This is the entire top shelf in my itty bitty pantry. Wait. I dont' have a pantry. I have itty bitty cabinet spaces. I live in a Tree house type cabin so space is an issue. I just noticed all the fingerprints on my containers.  We dont' even have closets. I bet you can't comprehend that can you?   Well, we don't.   My home has to always be on its game because I have no where to put anything or hide anything....what you see is what it is.  We have those clothes things that our clothes hang on in our room... so all our clothes are exposed if anyone walks in our rooms.... I keep the place tidy but, I can't have extras. I have to only have what we use and need.   Some may say why on earth would we live in a small cabin like this... welllllllllllllllllll, because we are surrounded by the lake ...panoramic lake front view on several acres and on top of that we are surrounded by Core of Engineer property  with tons of trees and birds...bunnies and of course snakes and coyotes.  Its breathtaking. I would give up half this itty bitty cabin to live here.... heck, i'd give up the cabin and live in a tent. I always call it our paradise. But I can be bought.  And I figure some day someone will discover us and buy us out.   Thats the plan.  When we are bought out we will completely downsize even more and buy an even itty bittier place as home ground here in the states and take the money and run off to the jungle or Africa or somewhere.  I wish I could just be settled but I have this constant stirring in my heart that never stops.   My feet are always wanting to go...go away to where there is human suffering beyond what we can comprehend. I want to hold the hand of the dying...dying with AIDS...dying of poverty....hold the babies, hold. Just hold.  Cry. Hold.  

For now... here is the closest thing I have to a jungle cat. :)

.......   LOVE...... !!!!

 

Pondering a study....

I've been pondering a lot about what to say when I teach at the local jail.  I have never taught before...nada.  I have been sitting in on the teachings at jail that the other ladies have been sharing....gleaning, learning. Been praying for God to give me a subject to talk about. It has to be relevant. What I have been feeling is to teach on is about how some women carry burdens and misunderstandings about God due to a really bad or non existent relationship with their earthly dads. Many women in jail are from broken homes,abusive homes ...never loved or well cared for by their fathers, only hurt or abandoned. 

I want to relay to them the love of God and his relationship toward them is different. Misunderstanding who God is and how He feels about us impacts many many areas of our life and consequently if a relationship with a earthly father was bad then we tend to ask 'what kind of father is God'.... So that is where I am at right now...seeking God to help me pull something together that will be meaningful to the ladies at the jail.  Suggestions welcome! 

Annah is making Martha White Mixed Berry Muffins. :)  Very simple.... just add milk! :) 
She stirred the batter, sprayed the  little cups and spooned in the batter. Wahlah, excellent with a slab of real butter! :)

She wanted to fill up all the cups so they turned out rather small.  Cute though. She put some in a little plate to save for daddy. :) 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone be found boasting. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10

Weekend Indulging

We went to an art showing at 'The Chestnut Tea Room' in Denton,TX. Friday night. It was my mom's art class (she is the teacher) and they had all their artwork displayed around the room for their friends and family to come and see. We also enjoyed delicious food!  It was delightful.  My mom is the one in the back in the lemon yellow.  Matches her outgoing, happy personality. :) 

....And then yet another mouth watering extra delicious and indulging potluck at our home church. :)  Green Bean Casserole, Potato Salad, Sushi, Cheesy Rice dish, BBQ Chicken, Rolls, Angel food cake with fruit and whip cream...cake... coffee...!!!  I'm kinda ready for some work..... jungle kind... some kind... something thats not so indulging. I've been really talking to God about that. 
 

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.- George Mueller

The amazing way of God

Annah got her hair done today. The first time ever.  I had always thought her hair was just too short but, wow...the lady  weaved in extensions with great ease and created a whole new look.  I love it!  I am probably going to wonder why I didn't begin getting her hair braided a couple years ago.  This style is suppose to last about 3 months and very casual.... just wash and go.  I can't imagine the freedom in that. Annah's hair and myself have had some great times and some not so great times. The struggles....   And I learned so much about future hair care for her  just being there... it was great!  It took about 3 hours and Annah sat still...almost falling asleep here and there. Annah loves her new style, she has been flinging that hair around like a little doll..  :) 

I heard the most amazing testimony. I listened as the man himself shared it.   There was a man who, as a little boy of about 3, his dad left him and his mom.  The dad wanted to ride free around the world on his motorcycle and have his own life, not be straddled with a kid and wife.  The mom was young and ended up just getting into drugs and other stuff. She was brutally murdered in front of the little boy when he was 8.  I don't know how he avoided Child Protective Services but apparently he landed in the streets and lived there and became a drug addict and a gang member.  At one point he became suicidal and as he contemplated his misery and suffering and ending his life he was aimlessly walking around and he saw a church. He'd never been in a church. He didn't know anything at all about God or Christ or the Holy Spirit...but he wandered into the church and the pastor just happened to be there. The guy told the pastor everything. The Pastor told him that he too had been in trouble, on drugs, in a gang, in prison for several years. He said he found God in prison  and came out born again, forever permanently changed and saved.  The young man was just so amazed that God had taken the pastor from the depths of hell, cleaned him up, fixed him,loved him as he was and then there he was whole and in church and a Pastor.... The pastor led the young man to Christ and then he pulled out his wallet and showed him an array of photographs of himself and a little boy... as it turned out, the pastor in the church was the young mans dad.  :)   Amazing  Love. Amazing Grace.

“Abounding sin is the terror of the world, but abounding grace is the hope of mankind.” -A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

 

5 lb Potluck cost me 5 extra miles

I jogged 10 miles today. I typically do 5 miles every day/7 days a week.  I have to because I eat alot. Thats really the only reason I jog so fanatically is so that I can eat whatever I want to. Not that I eat junk food or fast food or anything like that but, I like to eat what I want to eat and not have to worry about gaining weight or clogging my arteries or something. But I will jog 10 miles until I get this extra "Potluck" food weight off me that I have gained in April because of all the potlucks going on and I have one tomorrow night, a dinner  out Friday night and another potluck Saturday night at church. So even though I can eat what I want at 5 miles per day I can't eat in a continual  abundance... there are limits.  5 extra pounds feels really disgusting. I mean I can literally feel it oozing and bubbling around....sloshing.   And  the photo is of the shoes I am still jogging in... the hole has grown.  Paul constantly asks me to go out and get shoes, he says he will meet me at Addidas etc.... its not that I can't go out and get myself my own pair of jogging shoes... but its just this weird thing for years  that Paul and I buy my jogging shoes together...its always been...always shall be.  I think its because he loves sport shoes and he is an expert on sport shoes so he probably thinks he should help me. I probably  need the help. I always gravitate toward really hot pink or bright yellow sport looking shoes and he reminds me they are for walking or hopping or something.  It wouldn't matter though because I have 2 broken little end toes ...one per foot... so when I jog I need a shoe that is a bit wider and my feet kinda got wide when I jogged barefooted. That was really stupid but I thought it was nature-ish.  But it just gave me bad shin splints and fat wide feet. My dad says my feet look like Tree toad feet. So actually they don't make pretty pink jogging shoes for my feet. I have to usually get mens.  And they are usually so ugly. I mean I can't even bear to usually look at my shoes when I jog.  They just don't make me happy at all.  I want pink jogging shoes with a silver streak and maybe some glitter.  

 

I thought this was so funny... I caught Paul with the bag my mom got for Annah... He looks 'caught'...like a deer in headlights does he not?

Sleepy heads

This is a wee bit older photo but its one of my favorites.  The cat, Fluffy, she lived to be about 18 years old. Sweet thang she was.  Annah used to fall asleep so easily in our laps but nowadays its a bit more of a struggle getting her to stop wiggling and fall asleep.  We still rock her to sleep....we don't put her in bed and read her a story like normal families.... she brings a blanket and plops on my lap at bedtime about 8:30 and then there is the repeating "Be still..I saaaiiiid be still... still... stop wiggling, be still, shshshhshshhh, close your eyes... wanna go upstairs and read a story instead...no? ...Okay then close your eyes and be still....I saaaiddd be still ".... she's usually SO tired by 8:30 that within 15 minutes she's sound asleep. Honestly, I think if I was to actually take her upstairs to her bed and read to her that we would both be asleep. I don't want to be asleep that early.  I have always hated that fact that I'm usually barely having my eyes open by 10:30. Seems most my friends are up until the wee hours. Even in my youthfulness I couldn't stay awake past midnight. I would be the person asleep in the corner somewhere. Never could do lock ins or sleepovers...  I am energetic from sun up to sun down and then on cue every night its as if someone just turns off a switch, I start shutting down at dark.... nothing I can do. Sometimes I drink a coke.

"He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much". --Jesus Christ

Cancer Sucks

Got my new T-shirt today from Choose Hope.   Its the Sport Grey...just like the top one in the picture. 

My beautiful 3rd cousin,Laura, who is young (early 40's)  vibrant ,cheerful, joyful, sweeter than a lump of sugar and for all accounts very healthy....  is a survivor of  3rd stage Colon cancer. To any of our knowledge, its not ever struck our family.  She didn't fit the 'profile' for being at risk at all.  The fight was brutal. It began May 27, 2009.  You can read her entire fight from the day she heard the news to this present day on her blog here.   

Her testimony through it all, testifies to the way God held her, the moments His presence became more than just known but a very real Presence, His constant reminders to her that He is near ... everything will be okay... she blogs about the reality of the disease and what it does to your body...what chemo and radiation do. Since I began reading her daily journal I was introduced to many people she came across or knew who were fighting cancer.  Its such an ugly invader in ones world.  Her first post is titled "Life Interrupted' which is very appropriate.  Today, she is tying up the loose ends that come with it but, she is cancer free and ready to live life again.  

 

“’Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

Isaiah 54:10

Flowery little girls

I had oodles of fun making these big flower headbands for my little girl Annah..They are the 'in' thing for girls nowdays. :)

Our daughters are the most precious of our treasures, the dearest possessions of our homes and the objects of our most watchful love.  -- Margaret E. Sangster

Boogers - The truth

Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on the booger? Have you ever wondered what it was good for and why your nose will at times fill up with them? Let me inform you here and now that a booger plays a very important  role in the human body.

First, before it forms into the slimy or crumbly booger it is mucus. Mucus, as icky as it is, plays an important role in the body by protecting your lungs. When you breathe through your nose you inhale a lot of foreign matter such as dust and dirt, germs, bacteria, pollen and fumes. Your body makes an effort to protect your lungs from this pollution by filtering it or trapping it by the use of snot. If all these elements made it through to your lungs you might have trouble breathing or get an infection. However, once all that stuff gets trapped in your nose the mucus rushes to the rescue by surrounding it on all sides and your nose hair aide the mucus to move toward the front portion of your nose or the back of your throat. When all the elements and mucus all lump up together you then have your booger.

There is not a scientific name for boogers. A booger is a booger and there is no other name for it, however, the technical name for using your finger to extract boogers is rhinotillexis. Eating your boogers is called mucophagy.

Dr. Friedrich Bischinger, an Innsbruck-based lung specialist has said: "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner. And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of
bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine. Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."

Dr. Bischinger also states that a person who happily booger picks without reservation is a healthy, happy person who is very in tune with their body. He says society should embrace nose-picking and encourage children  who happily pick their noses be encouraged to continue. He states that by the time children become adults they have stopped nose picking due to pressures from a society that has branded it disgusting and anti-social. Dr. Bischinger states that is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well," he said News Source: Ananova
Of course, contrary to how Dr. Bischinger feels about happily nose picking, the other side would say that boogers should be blown out with a clean tissue to prevent getting more germs inside the nose cavity or cause it to bleed when digging around in it to free up boogers. 

I proudly claim this article as written by me.   Published on AC.  :)  If you would like to know more about writing fascinating articles for money or for fun, check out Associated Content Online. They do not pay much upfront, few bucks actually, but, for every article hit you get cents and the cents do add up.  Plus, its just fun to have your own little library bookshelf online.

Nice People

A friend of mine, Debbie O.... her and her family came to the Seder/Potluck and she had asked me what I was bringing to the potluck part. I told her I was bringing a Chicken Stuffing Casserole that I got off the back of a Stove Top Stuffing box.  That night, she told me she brought Fettuccine Alfredo and my favorite corn casserole so that I would have something to eat. She said since I was bringing something I couldn't eat...because I am a Vegetarian, she brought something I could eat.  And had she not brought that dinner for me, I would not of had anything to even graze from. To my shock, everything had meat in it, even a delightful salad was loaded with chicken.  I could of eaten dessert only but I really need protein to prevent spontaneous short wiring in my brain that causes my usually bubbly personality to take a dive. Wasn't that just the nicest thing ever?  I was so touched that someone thought of me and brought me something to eat.   
When we go to our home church, the house we go to always makes sure there is food for me, even if they have to specially prepare it... one time they made two pots of spaghetti sauce, one with meat, one meatless and so on. 

  If I was not a Christian, this type of concern and act of kindness would mean so much, would mean more to me than being preached at ...while being preached at can have its place, the kindness is what would bring it all home. 
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity: George Bernard Shaw

Libby Loves Jesus

We had a Seder Passover Meal and Potluck in our barn... I wanted to take more pictures but my camera was very temperamental. I had never attended a Seder. It was meaningful. It felt like an Easter should feel..

This sign is on a door in our barn.  I hadn't noticed it till that night. Had to click it as I giggled.

The next day, Easter Sunday, we went out to my mom and dad's house, met up with Tiffany and had a very relaxing, thankful, grateful, giggly day.  This hammock never crumbled with us in it but we were sure thinking it might. :)

My mom (Nana) and Annah having girl time on the swing.

I hope your Easter was meaningful! I am so grateful, thankful. Happy because of the comfort I have through Christ dying a physical death for me and then always being present in my life, in my hopes, in my sorrows, in everything. He rose from a grave, He was seen. He is here. Near.  I realize that life is a battlefield of good and evil and that many times I will see the brunt of evil. I realize there will be great grief, pain, sorrow and overwhelming times of emotional pain...been there, done that, expect more but the difference is that I have a way out if you will. I have a way out  because I have always seen the light. No pun intended. But there is always the light in my path, the lamp at my feet, incredible hope, incredible power in the name of Jesus.  Always know God is near.  I believe that life on earth has battle lines drawn between good and evil... and lines get crossed.   I never know when I might step on a land mine but I do know I will be held. I am aware that there is evil that is an enemy to my soul and my life.  Its just a matter of walking and hearing and listening to do my best to avoid them and what Easter is for me is a reminder of how grateful I am that my God, the God who created the air I breath, the earth that I walk upon, every single thing also sent to this very place a Savior to  get me through the battle.  I can't see this life as anything but a battlefield. My eyes don't allow it.  But I have One whose name is Jesus, who died, rose, and takes my hand and walks me through the land mines, the wars, the famines, everything... He holds my hand and I am so grateful for that. Unbelievably grateful.

Okay, the end... 

really :-)

 must go study Spanish... love my teacher !!!!!  She's sooo patient with the likes of me!! and goodness... Annah is way to quite!! What is she up too!!!!

Hanging out

This week has been really hectic.  I like free time,down time, spare time but haven't really found much of it... I confess...I don't see blogging as spare time. :-)  Its necessary time.... it is fun, but it takes work... you have to admit it does indeed take effort to blog  and visit blogs.... enjoyable yes, effort yes..... I'm talking I want some down time where I just relax in my recliner  with a bag of hot pepper organic waffle fries chips and a diet coke and a good book with  nothing on my plate to do. No effort in thinking about anything. Some of my blogging Peeps, such as Old Geezer blog is so engaging and thought provoking that my poor wee brain suffers at trying to squeeze out a good answer....an answer that makes me look like I know the answer. That takes effort. 

And isn't this just Way neat??? You can buy blank cookbooks at Borders bookstore or Amazon etc... and then just fill in your favorite recipes. A friend of mine is making one for a wedding gift for one of her good friends. She is going to put down all her families favorite recipes and add pictures and put notes and memories and quotes throughout it. Really personalize it. I think thats such an awesome idea for someone who perhaps has everything and a sentimental gift would work better.

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

- John Shedd