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Sunday, August 31, 2008
Daisy Doggie Bloggy Friends meet Happy
The Welcome mat is out and Daisy says to come on in. . .
Welcome to our Daisy's new Sunday post. She moved over from Saturday because we decided since Sunday is family day that she would write about being a family pet.
And write about her friends that are family pets.
Because all our animals have very special places in our hearts we wanted to share with everyone how special an animal can be. Daisy has had many job descriptions since she has been with us. And one of them is "Missionary Dog". She has gone with us to the mission and licked(kissed), and loved on the kids. And now she goes with us to the food pantry to pick up the food. She loves it. She patiently sits in the truck at the dock and watches all the people come and go and watches the staff load the food.
She is a faithful companion to me. I wrote about how she came to be with us on my Sunday post last week. Please go and read it. (Sorry I don't know how to link to it yet) But I have figured out Bold Italics isn't that cool. Oh I am sorry. Daisy is nudging my arm trying to let me know this post was supposed to be about her new friend Happy. Here is a pretty picture of Happy.
Do you see why we said "pretty"? Look at that beautiful hair. I bet her mom brushes her everyday. Oh btw she did get a hair cut recently and she is just so cute. She is so much fun to play with we can tell by reading her moms blog.
And the coolest thing is she told us about the neatest blog. It is called
Dogs on Thursday. or DOT it is so cool. It is when everyone writes about their dogs. Come back on Thursday because my mom promises to write something special about me. There is a cute button on the sidebar and mom already wrote on it
Daisy's Meme Isn't that cool I have a special meme of my own.
Mom says we have to go now. Oh and another job title I have is Ranch Dog Because I go out everyday and take care of the horses. I am really busy so I have to go for now.
Please go over and visit Happy and her mom at thier blog.
Serendipitypark.blogspot.com
Have a Happy Day.
Daisy
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Then Sings My Soul ... I will not be moved
My soul is happy this morning and I hope yours is too. Every Saturday I participate in Then Sings my Soul.
Here is the song I want to share today. This song has been on my mind all week.
I chose this version because it includes the lyrics.
These lyrics have spoken to me so much this week. Because I stumble
I face heartache sometimes I am bitter.
Fort the last 5 years God has Blessed me and Cowboy to be able to serve him fulltime in ministry. And through these years I have faced these emotions and many more.
I/we have faced rejection,hurt,anger,sadness because people that we have trusted and have depended on have come and gone or let us down. Or out right
administered hurt. We have faced financial ruin in our personal lives.
But we are called by God to this minsitry. And through all this We will not be moved It is during the times of all the pain and hurt and through many other emotions; that we see that; we must be doing it right because when your right with God many times everything else blows up around you. We have supporters that tell us that we are making the evil one "mad". That is when we face all the struggles. The more difference we make in lives of disadvantage teens. The more we are attacked.
And as We are not moved we try to face these attacks with strength
throug Christ we lean on Phillipians 4:13 for strength and on Proverbs 3:5&6 for patience and understanding.
I am grateful for Amy Wyatt over at signsmiraclesandonders.blogspot.com because of her wonderful idea for Then Sings My Soul.
It is amazing and fun and a great way to meet bloggers and find some new friends.
If you read my blog you'll know I am not too savy and don't know how to link. But I know how to google.
Just go to google and type:
Then Sings My Soul Saturday you'll get a whole list. Just click on anyone of the posts. Now when you find one it might not be the current post.
Here's how to get to todays. Go back up to your address bar at the top. You'll want to then go to your delete button. Starting at the right end of that address delete everything all the numbers and letters till you get to the end of .com stop don't delete the m or anything else. Thenk hit enter and Easey,Peasey you'll be at a wonderful post.
Go over and check out all the other amazing songs that the others are posting.
And thanks so much for coming over today. I hope that my resolve to Trust in the Lord and answer his call in some way ministers to someone else. And if your struggle with anything similar remember he is with you.
Here is the song I want to share today. This song has been on my mind all week.
I chose this version because it includes the lyrics.
These lyrics have spoken to me so much this week. Because I stumble
I face heartache sometimes I am bitter.
Fort the last 5 years God has Blessed me and Cowboy to be able to serve him fulltime in ministry. And through these years I have faced these emotions and many more.
I/we have faced rejection,hurt,anger,sadness because people that we have trusted and have depended on have come and gone or let us down. Or out right
administered hurt. We have faced financial ruin in our personal lives.
But we are called by God to this minsitry. And through all this We will not be moved It is during the times of all the pain and hurt and through many other emotions; that we see that; we must be doing it right because when your right with God many times everything else blows up around you. We have supporters that tell us that we are making the evil one "mad". That is when we face all the struggles. The more difference we make in lives of disadvantage teens. The more we are attacked.
And as We are not moved we try to face these attacks with strength
throug Christ we lean on Phillipians 4:13 for strength and on Proverbs 3:5&6 for patience and understanding.
I am grateful for Amy Wyatt over at signsmiraclesandonders.blogspot.com because of her wonderful idea for Then Sings My Soul.
It is amazing and fun and a great way to meet bloggers and find some new friends.
If you read my blog you'll know I am not too savy and don't know how to link. But I know how to google.
Just go to google and type:
Then Sings My Soul Saturday you'll get a whole list. Just click on anyone of the posts. Now when you find one it might not be the current post.
Here's how to get to todays. Go back up to your address bar at the top. You'll want to then go to your delete button. Starting at the right end of that address delete everything all the numbers and letters till you get to the end of .com stop don't delete the m or anything else. Thenk hit enter and Easey,Peasey you'll be at a wonderful post.
Go over and check out all the other amazing songs that the others are posting.
And thanks so much for coming over today. I hope that my resolve to Trust in the Lord and answer his call in some way ministers to someone else. And if your struggle with anything similar remember he is with you.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Show and Tell Friday
Welcome to Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli at Theres No Place Like Home.
I hope you enjoy my Show and Tell today.
And then when you done go over and check out Kelli and the others.
Today my S&T is part of something I have been wanting to show for a while.
Because I have had camera difficulties I have been able to take any photo's.
And so I have resorted to be resourceful.
Before I share my S&T please let me tell you about my new best friend it is my printer/scanner.
It now ranks with duck tape,zip lock bags and Dr. Pepper. The following S&T photo's aren't great but they are here compliments of my scanner.
So without further ado here's my Show and Tell...
First is part of a birthday present my sister gave me last year. It was a
set of dishes. Here is one plate.
They are 8 matching plates. A cowboy hat shaped dip and chip bowl and two other boot shape serving pieces.
I have set my table with 4 plates and some pretty candles and glasses and a centerpiece that I like.
Here is a photo of the napkins at each place setting.
There are two lacey napkins and two that are really old white linen or cotton I am not sure which. They have some tatting (I think) on the edge. I just think they are pretty.
I walk by the table everyday and I get to see them. We don't actually use the ones with the tatting because they are really old and fragile. I wash every know and then.
(Home Sanctuary challenge in August...wash linens...see Rachel at Company girls)
Oh the napkin rings. I almost forgot. Can you see them in the photo? They are cowboy hats. I just love them and to tell you the truth I don't remember where I got them. I think maybe a friend gave them too me. I am ashamed I don't remember.
I hope you have enjoyed this resourceful Show and Tell and please drop in anytime. The table is always set.
Come by tomorrow and hear a song I have planned to share for Then Sings My Soul and
don't forget my guest writer Daisywill be sharing about another new friend. I know you will be Happy to meet Daisy's friend.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Dogs on Thursday...
It works now Updated 5:22 a.m.Here is "our Daisy"
Blogger doesn't seem to want to upload photos nowPlease check back tomorrow hopefully I can add the photo's.
We just found the coolest new meme for all of us dog lovers and dogs. And so Daisy and I are joining the crowd and inviting everyone over to meet Daisy.
When we got her almost 3 years ago she was already named. She came from the local pound. If you go to my Sunday post you can read all about when I got her.
She is "our" dog now. Not just "my" dog.
My Wednesday post tells all about how my Cowboy thinks of Daisy even when I don't. It is totally funny because he didn't want to get another dog.
Recently he suggested that we change her name to Always because
she is always with me.
Here is another photo of Daisy which shows how she is always with me. No matter where I am Daisy is there. Usually right under my feet or with me. This is a photo taken in my sewing room on an old couch from my parents that hopefully someday soon I will recover and repaint to look shabby chic. Right now it is just shabby!
I hope you all have enjoyed meeting Daisy. Please come by on Sunday's and see the posts that she hosts. And meet some of her Doggie friends.
Have a happy Friday and come back and see our show and tell.
Smiles,
Sherry and Daisy
A dummy at blogging
Duh Ok. I have figured this out. I was typing these tags now I realize that I can click on them. I am trying to figure out the link thing. So here goes again. I tried it this morning and it didn't work. But we'll see now. I think the bold letters and the italics will work. I get that but I just can't figure out the linking thing. Here goes.
Oh before I try notice the label...
updated after first attempt...
OK...It just won't work on the link.
I am realizing that I do forget to add a space sometimes after a bold or italics word. Sorry. I am back to the tutorials again. I swear I am going to get this.
Oh BTW...the Decluttering is coming along nicely. I am doing that while cooking dinner. I will give an update on how many spoons etc. that I am donating to charity.
Back to the tutorials.
BTW thanks everyone for stopping in to see Amy today. I know she appreciated it. I read the comments and they were all so sweet.
Oh before I try notice the label...
updated after first attempt...
OK...It just won't work on the link.
I am realizing that I do forget to add a space sometimes after a bold or italics word. Sorry. I am back to the tutorials again. I swear I am going to get this.
Oh BTW...the Decluttering is coming along nicely. I am doing that while cooking dinner. I will give an update on how many spoons etc. that I am donating to charity.
Back to the tutorials.
BTW thanks everyone for stopping in to see Amy today. I know she appreciated it. I read the comments and they were all so sweet.
Thankful Thursday/DeClutter project
I posted this photo late last night after going over to Amy's to see the rest of the
WFW posts.
Amy had written asking for prayer for her and the family. They lost the family dog yesterday. Please go over and give her a hug today. If you don't know Amy she does the amazing Wordfilled Wednesday meme. Just type Wordfilled Wednesday in google
and the160acreawood.com will pop up or just type the160acrewood.com it should work.
My thankful list begins with Special Friends like Amy at
The160acrewood.comsorry this still isn't a link I did try what a couple of people suggested last night and it didn't work. This post will be in my dummies at blogging label for sure!
I am thankful for Blogging because it is through blogging that I
have found some new friends. Girls that encourage me. Girls that God speaks through. If you guys do not know it; you rock in many ways but especially by allowing God to speak through you. Together we can change the world one little blog at a time!
I am thankful for my printer/scannerI know that sounds silly. But
come by tomorrow for Show and Tell hosted by Kelli to see why I am
so thankful for my printer/scanner.
I am thankful that God is so loving and caring and so smart. You know; wow when you just think of what all he has done and is doing. And he is just in the middle of
all we do. Even when things are crazy he is in control. And if we just take the
time to look at his word he will speak to us and calm all the craziness. All I can
say is wow.
And another reason that I am thankful for God is because he is the one that brings us
all together here. That is just cool. We all get together and get to know one another because we all are so Thankful for the amazing things he is doing for us and in us.
I am thankful too that he gives me opportunities to see his love and he continues
to provide for us and the ministry.
I am thankful for Marcia and Beth that came up with the idea of August DeClutter Challenge and so that being said here is what I am decluttering today.
My kitchen cooking utensils. How many wooden spoons,plastic spoons and knives do you have in the drawer probably by the stove? Well I have too many.
So today I am going to purge that drawer and get rid of the ones I haven't used in
I don't know how long. I caught myself last night tearing the kitchen apart it seemed looking for one specific item. Tongs. Not just any pair of tongs. The Tongsso why do I have 3 pairs. When I only like one of them?
So after today The Tongs little buddies will be finding new homes hopefully someone will appreciate them more than me.
And tomorrow my project is going to be condimentsHow many condiments do you have?
I may not know how to link yet but I am getting pretty good at Bolddon't ya think? HeHe
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Please visit Amy...
I dropped back in at Amy's tonight because I wanted to visit the other WFW posts.
She had a really sad post this evening. The family dog was accidentally killed today.
Please go over to Amy's and offer her condolences. She was a little sad about feeling so sad over this loss. I know she would appreciate your thoughtfulness.
I am going to try and leave a link here it is.
Hopefully this works. If not google The 160 acre wood or try Word Filled Wednesday it should work.
To Amy...Your are absolutely amazing. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and
your family and the new sweet babies.
Love,
Sherry and Daisy
De-Cluttering Challenge--The Paper Edition
I love these really cool meme's. I have been doing the August De-clutter
challenge with Marcia and Beth and today's challenge was actually inspired by
Racheal over at Home Sanctuary. (another cool blog) Racheal has a daily challenge.
Go over and check her out for some cool ideas and cool songs to go with each challenge. She is amazing. He challenge was dealing with paper. And she used the song "Under a Paper Moon".
Well I was inspired to begin another paper project. I think this is the week for paper. The last couple of days I worked on my Cowboys receipts.
Today I tackled my own clutter. Interestingly I ran across a labeled filedthat contained receipts from our Wyoming and South Dakota vacation. The trip was taken to go antique shopping. I was really glad that I had found the receipts and glad that I had kept them. We have some things that we are holding onto and want the kids to know thier value. So I am going to copy all the receipts to keep in a file and store the originals with the items. I want the kids to be able to have an easier time putting a value on these things if they need to.
I have a lot of files sometimes the family makes fun of me because my files or so big but they came in handy just a few weeks ago when our daughter was writing a
resume about her horse experience. I happened to have receipts,programs and lists of all the seminars and training shows she had been to. So these things really came in handy for her while compiling that resume.
I am still working on my files but at least I have a huge start.
I hope that more sorting and de-cluttering inspires someone to take the time and do some things like this for the kids. You never know when things like receipts and programs will become important.
I had a great day visiting the WFW posts. I hope everyone else did too.
Smiles,
Sherry
challenge with Marcia and Beth and today's challenge was actually inspired by
Racheal over at Home Sanctuary. (another cool blog) Racheal has a daily challenge.
Go over and check her out for some cool ideas and cool songs to go with each challenge. She is amazing. He challenge was dealing with paper. And she used the song "Under a Paper Moon".
Well I was inspired to begin another paper project. I think this is the week for paper. The last couple of days I worked on my Cowboys receipts.
Today I tackled my own clutter. Interestingly I ran across a labeled filedthat contained receipts from our Wyoming and South Dakota vacation. The trip was taken to go antique shopping. I was really glad that I had found the receipts and glad that I had kept them. We have some things that we are holding onto and want the kids to know thier value. So I am going to copy all the receipts to keep in a file and store the originals with the items. I want the kids to be able to have an easier time putting a value on these things if they need to.
I have a lot of files sometimes the family makes fun of me because my files or so big but they came in handy just a few weeks ago when our daughter was writing a
resume about her horse experience. I happened to have receipts,programs and lists of all the seminars and training shows she had been to. So these things really came in handy for her while compiling that resume.
I am still working on my files but at least I have a huge start.
I hope that more sorting and de-cluttering inspires someone to take the time and do some things like this for the kids. You never know when things like receipts and programs will become important.
I had a great day visiting the WFW posts. I hope everyone else did too.
Smiles,
Sherry
Word Filled Wednesday
Please visit Amy at The160acrewood.comFor a wonderful Blessing.
Amy hosts Word Filled Wednesday and there are some amazing ladies that participate.
The above is not a link because I still can't figure out how to do that.
If you can't get there from the above just google it. I just love google. But
you might also try goodsearch. There is a link on my sidebar. I use Goodsearch because our ministry can get money from them for searching. Check them out please
and speaking of my ministry. If your interested email me and I'll tell you about how you can help our ministry through goodsearching.
This is what I am doing today and why I usually don't
post on Wednesday. Besides Amy does a marvelous job.
Actually this is a poster for a food drive. Every Wednesday I go to our local food bank to purchase food that our ministry distributes. Every week we fill 25 groceries sacks and distribute them to 25 different families that have teenagers that are on parole in our city. I am not a math person but if you do the #'s that is a lot of people. I don't say that to toot my own horn at all. I make the point only so you will notice how much need there is. And how many kids
there are out there that are in trouble.
So today while your surfing and visiting all the WFW blogs and seeing all the amazing scripture that is illustrated would you think about me and the ministry and all the kids that we are trying to reach.
Have a Blessed day. Oh and come back later for the August De-clutter challenge.
Smiles,
Sherry
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A dog; A Cowboy and a peach/De-clutter project
updated Tues. afternoon:My De-Clutter Project is below
A dog; a Cowboy and a peach. . .
...what do these things have in common you wonder?
Sunday after church we stopped at the grocery store to pick up something for lunch.
As we walk through the produce Cowboy asks me to get him a peach. I am thinking this is strange. He said he wanted something healthy so I got him one thinking all
along that God is working on him and answering my prayers about eating better etc.
You know what I mean. I have the man that wants meat and potatos.
So I pick out the peach put it in the cart and tell him that I hope it is ripe. I don't care much for fruit myself. The fruit I eat you don't have to worry too much about ripeness. Watermelon and strawberries,grapes and an apple now and then cut up in a salad. It isn't just Cowboy that isn't too much into the fruit. Anyway I am sorry back to the story. Don't get bored because it is funny. I know you are already guessing. The dog ate the peach. Your right well Cowboy ate it but Daisy
ate half. Now here is the funny part. Your thinking we offered it to her to Seeif she would eat it. Wrong we knew she would eat it.
One day we were driving home and stopped at a fruit/vegtable stand. I was buying lettuce and Cowboy bought a peach and was eating it while driving. He knows how to buy a peach. It was juicy and he was slurping peach juice and Daisy sitting in the back set kept coming to the front wanting the peach! We ended up giving her a couple of bites.
Now here is the totally crazy part. If you have not read my Sunday post about
Daisy plese Stopnow and read it then come back.
Ok....are you back....Here's the funny part.
Cowboy bought the peach on Sunday for Daisy
Amazing....
I am tackling some de-cluttering again today. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
I hope my story made you smile. And if not go over to Amy's 160acreawood.com she's the wonderful hostess of Wordfilled Wednesday he Monday post will make you smile.
If not go back to bed and get up on the other side.
Here is a photo of the De-clutter project I am stillworking on from yesterday.
I am having the most fun with Marcia and Beth doing the August De-Clutter challenge.
For me it is a little different than most of you guys. I am not only de-cluttering our house but I have files and inventory from our mission that are now are our home. These are the files I am dealing with right now. We moved into a house that has less extra storage space so fitting it all in is definately a challenge.
My Cowboy never throughs anything away, and never files anything. I regularly find
receipts waded up in the console of the truck,in the dresser drawer of bathroom drawer. You name it I find receipts. He is an accountants nightmare. And currently I am the accountant! I have to resolve to have a cheerful attitude.
I have to lean on God to get me through some of the tasks!
So I am thrilled when I find fun ways like the August De-Clutter challenge!
Thanks girls for this wonderful meme and thanks for the giveaway too!
Smiles to All,
Sherry
A dog; a Cowboy and a peach. . .
...what do these things have in common you wonder?
Sunday after church we stopped at the grocery store to pick up something for lunch.
As we walk through the produce Cowboy asks me to get him a peach. I am thinking this is strange. He said he wanted something healthy so I got him one thinking all
along that God is working on him and answering my prayers about eating better etc.
You know what I mean. I have the man that wants meat and potatos.
So I pick out the peach put it in the cart and tell him that I hope it is ripe. I don't care much for fruit myself. The fruit I eat you don't have to worry too much about ripeness. Watermelon and strawberries,grapes and an apple now and then cut up in a salad. It isn't just Cowboy that isn't too much into the fruit. Anyway I am sorry back to the story. Don't get bored because it is funny. I know you are already guessing. The dog ate the peach. Your right well Cowboy ate it but Daisy
ate half. Now here is the funny part. Your thinking we offered it to her to Seeif she would eat it. Wrong we knew she would eat it.
One day we were driving home and stopped at a fruit/vegtable stand. I was buying lettuce and Cowboy bought a peach and was eating it while driving. He knows how to buy a peach. It was juicy and he was slurping peach juice and Daisy sitting in the back set kept coming to the front wanting the peach! We ended up giving her a couple of bites.
Now here is the totally crazy part. If you have not read my Sunday post about
Daisy plese Stopnow and read it then come back.
Ok....are you back....Here's the funny part.
Cowboy bought the peach on Sunday for Daisy
Amazing....
I am tackling some de-cluttering again today. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
I hope my story made you smile. And if not go over to Amy's 160acreawood.com she's the wonderful hostess of Wordfilled Wednesday he Monday post will make you smile.
If not go back to bed and get up on the other side.
Here is a photo of the De-clutter project I am stillworking on from yesterday.
I am having the most fun with Marcia and Beth doing the August De-Clutter challenge.
For me it is a little different than most of you guys. I am not only de-cluttering our house but I have files and inventory from our mission that are now are our home. These are the files I am dealing with right now. We moved into a house that has less extra storage space so fitting it all in is definately a challenge.
My Cowboy never throughs anything away, and never files anything. I regularly find
receipts waded up in the console of the truck,in the dresser drawer of bathroom drawer. You name it I find receipts. He is an accountants nightmare. And currently I am the accountant! I have to resolve to have a cheerful attitude.
I have to lean on God to get me through some of the tasks!
So I am thrilled when I find fun ways like the August De-Clutter challenge!
Thanks girls for this wonderful meme and thanks for the giveaway too!
Smiles to All,
Sherry
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Simple Womans Daybook-August Declutter project
updated 6:48 p.m. Adding my de-clutter project of the day. Update #2 Tuesday afternoon I added the photo's for my de-clutter project.
For Today...My declutter project follows
Outside my Window...are tiny,sprigs of grass coming up in the pasture(from the rain last week) and no leaves on the porch I swept last night. And fresh cut grass in the yard it is still green.
I am thinking...of all the things on my list to do this. All the de-clutter projects,the ministry projects and paperwork and babysitting.
From the learning rooms...Notice the bold on each entry. I am learning more about how to make my blog pretty. I am praying for all the home schoolers including my son and daughter in love and my grandson starting the second grade. I am working on making lap books for him. Any pointers?
I am thankful for...That God reminds me he is there and that he allows me to work in Hisministry.
From the kitchen...more bread baking today. Cleaning and plans for
"Family Smorgasbord Sunday" This is something we did with our
kids on Sunday night after church. I/we would make fun appitizer type food and sit
in the living room and eat. The kids loved it. I tried new recipes. Now our daughter and son in love have asked to start the tradition again. I'll be getting ideas this week for what we will eat. Since they aren't kids anymore it'll be fun doing grown up type things.
I am wearing...Oh I love this part today!I am wearing dark green corduroy shorts from Old Navy....here's the best part. I didn't wear them last year! They fit again. I just love them! And I am wearing a red t-shirt from Lands End. It has a star on the front and says 'We the people'. I probably won't wear it all day because it is kind of a heavy knit.
I am reading...grant guidelines from foundations and other funders
for our ministry and I am going to start reading the book of Titus.
I am hoping...to see God's provision. And that I won't succomb to the sin of worry.
I am creating...greating cards for my churches card ministry. And I am writing a card a week to someone in our Sunday School class. (personal goal)
I am hearing...the barn cat tap the window to go outside this morning. He is mad. We found evidence of coyotes so he has to stay in at night.
Around the house...More de-cluttering. Will it ever end? And more organizing my house. Will it ever end? Although my house is pretty big there isn't as much closet space as I have had before. And only one living area. And there is no garage and no barn so I am struggling to find places to store some of that type stuff. And down size many items.
One of my favorite things...Being busy. I am always doing something.
Even when I am watching t.v. I am usually handsewing or something else creative.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...Prayer. There are some ministry projects that I am working on and need to be bathed in prayer. And I am praying about where God wants me to go with my blogging as a tool for ministry.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...
My grandson showing off the snake skin he found. I had a report over the weekend that he caught 35 grasshoppers for his dad to go fishing with. The fishing netted 4 fish. My daughter in love says that was better than the last 7 hour trip that harvested zero fish! While my son was fishing grandson found another huge grasshopper. He saved it to disect for science.
I pray for everyone to have a happy Home School year and enjoy the science classes!
Update...here's my de-clutter project.
I have been spending the day going through my husbands files for his ministry program. He is the worst about keeping track of receipts etc. We are needing some banking info. and other info. for a grant we're writing so I had to give up the grant project and organize his files. I have a photo to add but blogger isn't cooperating. But just imagine what it must be like. I have spent most of the day.
Between reading other daybook entries and laundry. I must take a break from the dreaded task once in a while.
And I am so glad I did because I found the neatest comment on this post! I won part of the August De-Clutter challenge! I'll write more tomorrow about that. But
go over to my sidebar and find the button to find out about the de-cluttering challenge.
I am sorry I haven't figured out yet how to link in a post!
Smiles,
Sherry
For Today...My declutter project follows
Outside my Window...are tiny,sprigs of grass coming up in the pasture(from the rain last week) and no leaves on the porch I swept last night. And fresh cut grass in the yard it is still green.
I am thinking...of all the things on my list to do this. All the de-clutter projects,the ministry projects and paperwork and babysitting.
From the learning rooms...Notice the bold on each entry. I am learning more about how to make my blog pretty. I am praying for all the home schoolers including my son and daughter in love and my grandson starting the second grade. I am working on making lap books for him. Any pointers?
I am thankful for...That God reminds me he is there and that he allows me to work in Hisministry.
From the kitchen...more bread baking today. Cleaning and plans for
"Family Smorgasbord Sunday" This is something we did with our
kids on Sunday night after church. I/we would make fun appitizer type food and sit
in the living room and eat. The kids loved it. I tried new recipes. Now our daughter and son in love have asked to start the tradition again. I'll be getting ideas this week for what we will eat. Since they aren't kids anymore it'll be fun doing grown up type things.
I am wearing...Oh I love this part today!I am wearing dark green corduroy shorts from Old Navy....here's the best part. I didn't wear them last year! They fit again. I just love them! And I am wearing a red t-shirt from Lands End. It has a star on the front and says 'We the people'. I probably won't wear it all day because it is kind of a heavy knit.
I am reading...grant guidelines from foundations and other funders
for our ministry and I am going to start reading the book of Titus.
I am hoping...to see God's provision. And that I won't succomb to the sin of worry.
I am creating...greating cards for my churches card ministry. And I am writing a card a week to someone in our Sunday School class. (personal goal)
I am hearing...the barn cat tap the window to go outside this morning. He is mad. We found evidence of coyotes so he has to stay in at night.
Around the house...More de-cluttering. Will it ever end? And more organizing my house. Will it ever end? Although my house is pretty big there isn't as much closet space as I have had before. And only one living area. And there is no garage and no barn so I am struggling to find places to store some of that type stuff. And down size many items.
One of my favorite things...Being busy. I am always doing something.
Even when I am watching t.v. I am usually handsewing or something else creative.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...Prayer. There are some ministry projects that I am working on and need to be bathed in prayer. And I am praying about where God wants me to go with my blogging as a tool for ministry.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...
My grandson showing off the snake skin he found. I had a report over the weekend that he caught 35 grasshoppers for his dad to go fishing with. The fishing netted 4 fish. My daughter in love says that was better than the last 7 hour trip that harvested zero fish! While my son was fishing grandson found another huge grasshopper. He saved it to disect for science.
I pray for everyone to have a happy Home School year and enjoy the science classes!
Update...here's my de-clutter project.
I have been spending the day going through my husbands files for his ministry program. He is the worst about keeping track of receipts etc. We are needing some banking info. and other info. for a grant we're writing so I had to give up the grant project and organize his files. I have a photo to add but blogger isn't cooperating. But just imagine what it must be like. I have spent most of the day.
Between reading other daybook entries and laundry. I must take a break from the dreaded task once in a while.
And I am so glad I did because I found the neatest comment on this post! I won part of the August De-Clutter challenge! I'll write more tomorrow about that. But
go over to my sidebar and find the button to find out about the de-cluttering challenge.
I am sorry I haven't figured out yet how to link in a post!
Smiles,
Sherry
Sunday, August 24, 2008
How I know . . .
Sometimes I just try and close my eyes and ask God to reach out and touch me.
Reach out to me and let me know that he is there and that he does hear my cries for help. Those times when I am so lost, broken or hurt that I don't know how to put into words all the pain. That is when the scripture says that the Holy Spirit steps in and is able to go to the father for me and let him know the groaning of my heart.
A couple of years ago I was in actually that spot. The place when I was so hurt, sad and broken that nothing seemed to help.
I caution you when you read this I don't know where you stand with God. I don't know how you perceive his love or how he shows his love to you. I don't know how you perceive coincidence.
I do know that I believe in God. I believe in his word. I believe that he loves me and that he will show me if I only look. I believe that he can and use people and circumstances.
It was through circumstances that he showed me that he is with me and that he will nor forsake me. If I was really scholarly I would be able to put a verse with each point I make. I know the verses. They are in my head. I know bits and pieces but not enough to remember right now to share with you. I am ashamed at that.
But I know that I can share with you a testimony. A testimony of how God showed me he loved me and taught me that I should have patience. When I feel like the whole world is against me. He is there.
He showed me a little over two years ago. It all started one Sat. evening. I happened to be up late couldn't sleep. (this doesn't happen often) I was flipping channels looking for a girly movie. You know one of those flicks that you can watch that just take up a couple of hours of time and just give you the opportunity to just kick back and not think.
Well that night there was nothing on. I kept flipping channels and happened on to the local access channel.
The local dog pound happened to be posting photo's of animals that needed to be adopted. I was not shopping for a dog. In fact my Cowboy had already mentioned that he did not want any more animals. At the time we had 3 horses,2 donkeys, 2 cats and 3rabbits. We had recently within the last year and half put down the two dogs that we raised from puppies.
None of this entered my mind as I just sat and watched all the kittens and puppies that needed a home. Then I saw Daisy. There was a rolling blinkie on her photo that said "urgent". She had been there for 45 days. They normally only keep dogs for 30 days. I looked at her sweet face and my first thought was I need this dog.
My second thought was. I cannot have this dog.
On Sunday we went to church and had a normal day. On Monday we had a normal day. I went through regular routine of working in our ministry.
I went through the normal routine for the time of battling a depression that was killing me. You see just over 2 years ago someone that was really,really important in my life pulled away from me. Because of circumstances beyond my control my dear sweet daughter and my wonderful son in love isolated themselves from me and Cowboy.
I was lost. I was depressed. I cried. I prayed. I prayed and I cried. I hoped.
I asked for help from friends and other family members. They all either ignored my requests for help or just flat didn't know how to help.
I went through the motions everyday of going to the mission and ministering to kids and families. I went through the motions of going to church. I prayed. I was in the word. I was doing God's will.
How could this happen? But it did happen and I was sick and tired and lonely.
I was involved in a Bible study at our church.
On Monday I kept thinking about Daisy. I emailed the city pound and asked if she was still available. She was. I prayed about her.
And on Tuesday morning I threw caution to the wind and I stopped by the pound on my way to Bible study. I saw her. I told the officer that I would think about her and might consider her. But I did ask one important ? does she get along with cats.
They were not sure. I said o.k. and left.
I went to Bible study and couldn't keep my mind on the lesson. At the end when our little group of 8 ladies began to pray. I finally broke down and told all of them what was going on with me. The amazing thing is that during the 5 weeks prior I had been the stable person of the group. I led the prayer. I prayed for everyone. I never mentioned to them how hurt I was. That day I let it all out. They all cried with me and prayed for me.
I left. I went to the pound and I picked up Daisy.
I took her home and walked in the door to find Cowboy sitting at the computer in the office. He immediately said. "What is that?" I answered and said. "My dog." I don't normally do things like this so he was totally shocked. He said. "Take it back." I said. "No." He said. "I said I don't want more dogs." I said. "I never agreed. And I am keeping her."
At this point I am sitting in a wing back chair in our office, Daisy is sitting in the floor at my feet and I lean over I put my face in her face and my arms around her neck and I begin to bawl my eyes out.
Cowboy begins to relent and says. "What are you going to do with her when you go to the mission?" I said. "I will take her with me." And I did.
Here is a photo of Daisy at the mission.
My Cowboy said to me. "I was studying and preparing for today's devotional and for some reason I kept reading in Isaiah a verse that says 'God hates divorce'. I couldn't figure out why I kept going to that verse. But I guess you can keep the dog."
Here is a photo of Daisy and Cowboy.
Today Cowboy breaks all my rules. Like no dog in the bed. No feeding people food to dogs. When I say no she doesn't need to "go". He convinces me she should "go".
Today I know that God brought Daisy into my life to show me that he loves me. He brought Daisy to me when I needed to be held and loved I needed to feel his presence.
Today all is back to normal with our family. Today we trust in the Lord. There are still things that we don't understand but we lean and trust in God.
And we enjoy our family and we love our dog because she shows us everyday that God is with us and he answers our prayers.
Sometimes I feel like everyone is against me. Sometimes I struggle with faith but I know that God has everything in control. Sometimes it is not easy. Sometimes it is really hard. But I realize that I am not promised it will be easy. I am promised though that my God loves me.
I know I am not alone.
I hope you enjoy this song. I hope that you feel God loving you. And if your ever at a time when you feel unloved or hurt remember that God does love you and that you can trust him no matter what you think. Don't lean on what you understand just open your heart and lean on him.
Reach out to me and let me know that he is there and that he does hear my cries for help. Those times when I am so lost, broken or hurt that I don't know how to put into words all the pain. That is when the scripture says that the Holy Spirit steps in and is able to go to the father for me and let him know the groaning of my heart.
A couple of years ago I was in actually that spot. The place when I was so hurt, sad and broken that nothing seemed to help.
I caution you when you read this I don't know where you stand with God. I don't know how you perceive his love or how he shows his love to you. I don't know how you perceive coincidence.
I do know that I believe in God. I believe in his word. I believe that he loves me and that he will show me if I only look. I believe that he can and use people and circumstances.
It was through circumstances that he showed me that he is with me and that he will nor forsake me. If I was really scholarly I would be able to put a verse with each point I make. I know the verses. They are in my head. I know bits and pieces but not enough to remember right now to share with you. I am ashamed at that.
But I know that I can share with you a testimony. A testimony of how God showed me he loved me and taught me that I should have patience. When I feel like the whole world is against me. He is there.
He showed me a little over two years ago. It all started one Sat. evening. I happened to be up late couldn't sleep. (this doesn't happen often) I was flipping channels looking for a girly movie. You know one of those flicks that you can watch that just take up a couple of hours of time and just give you the opportunity to just kick back and not think.
Well that night there was nothing on. I kept flipping channels and happened on to the local access channel.
The local dog pound happened to be posting photo's of animals that needed to be adopted. I was not shopping for a dog. In fact my Cowboy had already mentioned that he did not want any more animals. At the time we had 3 horses,2 donkeys, 2 cats and 3rabbits. We had recently within the last year and half put down the two dogs that we raised from puppies.
None of this entered my mind as I just sat and watched all the kittens and puppies that needed a home. Then I saw Daisy. There was a rolling blinkie on her photo that said "urgent". She had been there for 45 days. They normally only keep dogs for 30 days. I looked at her sweet face and my first thought was I need this dog.
My second thought was. I cannot have this dog.
On Sunday we went to church and had a normal day. On Monday we had a normal day. I went through regular routine of working in our ministry.
I went through the normal routine for the time of battling a depression that was killing me. You see just over 2 years ago someone that was really,really important in my life pulled away from me. Because of circumstances beyond my control my dear sweet daughter and my wonderful son in love isolated themselves from me and Cowboy.
I was lost. I was depressed. I cried. I prayed. I prayed and I cried. I hoped.
I asked for help from friends and other family members. They all either ignored my requests for help or just flat didn't know how to help.
I went through the motions everyday of going to the mission and ministering to kids and families. I went through the motions of going to church. I prayed. I was in the word. I was doing God's will.
How could this happen? But it did happen and I was sick and tired and lonely.
I was involved in a Bible study at our church.
On Monday I kept thinking about Daisy. I emailed the city pound and asked if she was still available. She was. I prayed about her.
And on Tuesday morning I threw caution to the wind and I stopped by the pound on my way to Bible study. I saw her. I told the officer that I would think about her and might consider her. But I did ask one important ? does she get along with cats.
They were not sure. I said o.k. and left.
I went to Bible study and couldn't keep my mind on the lesson. At the end when our little group of 8 ladies began to pray. I finally broke down and told all of them what was going on with me. The amazing thing is that during the 5 weeks prior I had been the stable person of the group. I led the prayer. I prayed for everyone. I never mentioned to them how hurt I was. That day I let it all out. They all cried with me and prayed for me.
I left. I went to the pound and I picked up Daisy.
I took her home and walked in the door to find Cowboy sitting at the computer in the office. He immediately said. "What is that?" I answered and said. "My dog." I don't normally do things like this so he was totally shocked. He said. "Take it back." I said. "No." He said. "I said I don't want more dogs." I said. "I never agreed. And I am keeping her."
At this point I am sitting in a wing back chair in our office, Daisy is sitting in the floor at my feet and I lean over I put my face in her face and my arms around her neck and I begin to bawl my eyes out.
Cowboy begins to relent and says. "What are you going to do with her when you go to the mission?" I said. "I will take her with me." And I did.
Here is a photo of Daisy at the mission.
My Cowboy said to me. "I was studying and preparing for today's devotional and for some reason I kept reading in Isaiah a verse that says 'God hates divorce'. I couldn't figure out why I kept going to that verse. But I guess you can keep the dog."
Here is a photo of Daisy and Cowboy.
Today Cowboy breaks all my rules. Like no dog in the bed. No feeding people food to dogs. When I say no she doesn't need to "go". He convinces me she should "go".
Today I know that God brought Daisy into my life to show me that he loves me. He brought Daisy to me when I needed to be held and loved I needed to feel his presence.
Today all is back to normal with our family. Today we trust in the Lord. There are still things that we don't understand but we lean and trust in God.
And we enjoy our family and we love our dog because she shows us everyday that God is with us and he answers our prayers.
Sometimes I feel like everyone is against me. Sometimes I struggle with faith but I know that God has everything in control. Sometimes it is not easy. Sometimes it is really hard. But I realize that I am not promised it will be easy. I am promised though that my God loves me.
I know I am not alone.
I hope you enjoy this song. I hope that you feel God loving you. And if your ever at a time when you feel unloved or hurt remember that God does love you and that you can trust him no matter what you think. Don't lean on what you understand just open your heart and lean on him.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Then Sings my Soul Saturday
Then Sings My Soul...
One of my favorite things is worshp and praise music. I listen to the local Christian station whenever I am in the car or in the kitchen. I listen to the music on my cable package.
I think the reason that I enjoy this so much is because many of these songs the lyrics really speak to me and I can see them as a tool in our ministry.
The song I want to share today is Cry out to Jesus from Third Day. Below is a version I found on youtube. (don't forget to turn off my music list at the top of the page. )
This week I was working on a new project for the disadvantaged teen age girls that I work with. While working on a proposal and writing a letter to our supporters I was
reminded of one of the girls that I met last year and of a visit I made to the halfway house at Christimas.
Here's what I wrote in my letter of support for the new project.
"I remember last Christmas when I visited. One of the girls that is always smiling and cheerful wasn’t smiling. She barely looked up when I walked in. That wasn’t normal…this girl usually got in trouble for calling me over, or for stopping what she was doing and coming to greet me.
I watched her for a few minutes while I walked around the room and talked to the other girls. When I finally approached she barely looked at me. I tried to make small talk to get her to open up. When small talk didn’t work I finally flat out asked “What is wrong?” She finally looked at me and said she had tried to call her mom and didn’t have a current phone number. I didn’t know what to say. I reached out and touched her arm and said. “I am sorry.” I waited a moment before I added “I know it isn’t the same but I am here.” For a brief moment she didn’t respond then she looked at me and smiled. Almost her old self but not quite. She just smiled and said. “Thank you for coming to see me.”
This girl became very special to me while I had the opportunity to work with her.
She made a huge decision in her life. The decision to follow Jesus. She learned
that when she trusted Jesus that all the things she had done and that had happened to her she was forgiven. She learned that she can "Cry out to Jesus".
Then Sings my Soul Saturday has come to be a special time for me. Rather than taking away from it's message I have decided to change Daisy's post to Sunday at least for awhile. Since in my head Sunday is all about family and Daisy is so special to us and because the subjests of her posts are either my special family members or someone else's then I think it fitting to allow my guest writer Daisy write her posts on Sunday our "family" day.
If you haven't met Daisy please come back tomorrow for a special post.
We hope your day is Blessed and your Soul is touched. By the way you can read more
Then Sings My Soul posts by clicking here.
One of my favorite things is worshp and praise music. I listen to the local Christian station whenever I am in the car or in the kitchen. I listen to the music on my cable package.
I think the reason that I enjoy this so much is because many of these songs the lyrics really speak to me and I can see them as a tool in our ministry.
The song I want to share today is Cry out to Jesus from Third Day. Below is a version I found on youtube. (don't forget to turn off my music list at the top of the page. )
This week I was working on a new project for the disadvantaged teen age girls that I work with. While working on a proposal and writing a letter to our supporters I was
reminded of one of the girls that I met last year and of a visit I made to the halfway house at Christimas.
Here's what I wrote in my letter of support for the new project.
"I remember last Christmas when I visited. One of the girls that is always smiling and cheerful wasn’t smiling. She barely looked up when I walked in. That wasn’t normal…this girl usually got in trouble for calling me over, or for stopping what she was doing and coming to greet me.
I watched her for a few minutes while I walked around the room and talked to the other girls. When I finally approached she barely looked at me. I tried to make small talk to get her to open up. When small talk didn’t work I finally flat out asked “What is wrong?” She finally looked at me and said she had tried to call her mom and didn’t have a current phone number. I didn’t know what to say. I reached out and touched her arm and said. “I am sorry.” I waited a moment before I added “I know it isn’t the same but I am here.” For a brief moment she didn’t respond then she looked at me and smiled. Almost her old self but not quite. She just smiled and said. “Thank you for coming to see me.”
This girl became very special to me while I had the opportunity to work with her.
She made a huge decision in her life. The decision to follow Jesus. She learned
that when she trusted Jesus that all the things she had done and that had happened to her she was forgiven. She learned that she can "Cry out to Jesus".
Then Sings my Soul Saturday has come to be a special time for me. Rather than taking away from it's message I have decided to change Daisy's post to Sunday at least for awhile. Since in my head Sunday is all about family and Daisy is so special to us and because the subjests of her posts are either my special family members or someone else's then I think it fitting to allow my guest writer Daisy write her posts on Sunday our "family" day.
If you haven't met Daisy please come back tomorrow for a special post.
We hope your day is Blessed and your Soul is touched. By the way you can read more
Then Sings My Soul posts by clicking here.
Friday, August 22, 2008
De-cluttering to Show and Tell
today I wanted to do this . . .
I had this wonderful Show and Tell planned. I even mentioned it on Saturday in my post. But the photo's that I wanted to post today I cannot find! It is driving me crazy! Below is a framed drawing that I talked about on Saturday.
I intended to share a photo that is the inspiration for the above. But I cannot find any of the photo's I had set aside!
So instead of showing the rest of this collection my Show and Tell will consist of this one lone drawing.
My mother bought it for us at a craft shop. The drawing looks a lot like my daughter and her donkeys.
And now for the rest of my day I'll be doing this . . .
My De-cluttering project for today is this. . .
I am going to organize all our photo's again. The rest of the house duties are going to be delayed.
No cooking, no cleaning, no t.v.,no blogging,no laundry. Get the idea!
Well all that probably won't happen but I can at least dream. We have to eat so I guess I will cook. And no one else is here to clean or do the laundry except Cowboy and he is still recuperating from surgery.
But I am going to attempt to get this project done if not today then over the weekend. That's three days devoted to organizing photo's and maybe scrapbooking a few and then joining Scrappin' Sunday.
Sounds like a good goal to me.
I hope everyone has a great Show and Tell. I'll be checking in on all of you.
Please leave me a comment. I so need the encouragement today!
Smiles,
Sherry
I had this wonderful Show and Tell planned. I even mentioned it on Saturday in my post. But the photo's that I wanted to post today I cannot find! It is driving me crazy! Below is a framed drawing that I talked about on Saturday.
I intended to share a photo that is the inspiration for the above. But I cannot find any of the photo's I had set aside!
So instead of showing the rest of this collection my Show and Tell will consist of this one lone drawing.
My mother bought it for us at a craft shop. The drawing looks a lot like my daughter and her donkeys.
And now for the rest of my day I'll be doing this . . .
My De-cluttering project for today is this. . .
I am going to organize all our photo's again. The rest of the house duties are going to be delayed.
No cooking, no cleaning, no t.v.,
Well all that probably won't happen but I can at least dream. We have to eat so I guess I will cook. And no one else is here to clean or do the laundry except Cowboy and he is still recuperating from surgery.
But I am going to attempt to get this project done if not today then over the weekend. That's three days devoted to organizing photo's and maybe scrapbooking a few and then joining Scrappin' Sunday.
Sounds like a good goal to me.
I hope everyone has a great Show and Tell. I'll be checking in on all of you.
Please leave me a comment. I so need the encouragement today!
Smiles,
Sherry
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thankful Thursday/DeClutter project
Welcome to my Thankful Thursday post. Thankful Thursday is hosted by the amazing Iris over at Sting My Heart. Please go over and see her post and all the other wonderful ladies that are sharing the things that are on their hearts today things they are thankful about. (clutter project is below)
Here's my thankful list:
God's love yes I see God's love for me everyday and I am thankful that he provides.
Affirmation God is affirming me concerning his purpose for my life. Thank you God for answering my prayers and leading me the way you want me to go.
TimeI am thankful that God gives me the time to be able to help my daughter and son in love by keeping my grandbaby.
Rain we have had an amazing amount of rain. Thank you God for this provision. I love my yard and it is so happy too for the rain. And I know the farmers definately needed it too. We need hay.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a farmer and depend on crops for my living. I am thankful for farmers.
Tutorials Have you noticed how cool my post is this morning.
I am thankful for those nice people out there in blog land that teach the rest of us dummies how to do neat things like writing in BOLD Isn't that neat.
My de-clutter project yesterday was my blog. I got a lot done but it isn't finished. I re-arranged somethings. I have some more plans for it I'll be working on tonight.
I added a couple of blogs to my list check it out to see if your there. I will be adding some more too. I have lots of favorites that I visit. I love you girls.
If you've met me because I leave comments a lot you'll be there. And I am listing Daisy's friends too.
BTW please leave a comment and let me know how you like it. I am trying to make it
easier to navigate and pretty too. Let me know if you like the music. I wrote
about it yesterday and why I moved it. Let me know what you think please.
I hope everyone has a Blessed day. Whether your thankful for rain,sun,cool breezes or the last warm and sunny day for awhile enjoy your day!
BTW I have learned how to add a pretty signature but don't remember now how to do it. This post will be listed in my Dummies at Blogging
Isn't this cool!
Oh I am working on a clutter project...or will be tonight when I get home from keeping the baby.
Here's my project.
To gather all the gardening stuff, pots,racks,fertilizer and the chairs that are scattered in a couple of different areas of the yard. I plan to get the boxes off the deck. Yes there are some still there and they are wet now. But hopefully Cowboy will feel like getting rid of them today and that part will be done when I get home. I will put all the chairs together on the deck and hopefully hang the window boxes I have been wanting to hang. Now flowers yet but maybe I'll stick some silks in. My yard will be clutter free by tomorrow!
Please don't forget to visit me tomorrow for Show and Tell. I know you'll enjoy it.
Smiles,
Sherry
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Word Filled Wednesday-DeCluttering update
Amy Dean over at The 160 Acre Wood.com is my wonderful guest every Wednesday. Above is her wonderful illustration and reminder of God's word.
Here are her thoughts . . .
"I’ve currently been reading/working on a study over at Women of the Word. Carmen’s current study is The way of Cain
The study goes through some of the sins that we fall into and this verse captured me last week.. how if I’m not careful sin will try and overpower me. I know we need to press on and choose the right path; and remember that even when we think we are, we mustn’t let down our guard because sin is crouching at our door trying to get us to let it in.
God Bless!"
You can go over and visit Amy and see all the others that join her for Word Filled
Wednesday. And you can add this cute little button to your blog to let others now about this wonderful meme.
I am still continuting my de-cluttering today. I'll be updating this post later this afternoon after I finish the food pantry ministry.
Hope everyone has a Blessed Wednesday.
My de-cluttering progresses I am working on de-cluttering my blog.
My list to do:
Move the music (I like the music at the top so if you don't want to hear it then you can turn it off. I think there is nothing more annoying than real loud music. I don't know how to change the vol. it's sort of like when you watching tv which I don't do often but when it's on and a commercial comes on and blasts you!)
Update Homes I visit
Labels change
And maybe a couple of other things that are a surprise. Come by please and visit and did you notice my blinky at the top? Please leave a comment.
I tried something new that I just learned. Do you know what it is? I am adding the dummies at blogging label.
And if your wondering how this particular de-clutter task falls under the category of de-cluttering the house well here's my reasoning. My brain is cluttered sometimes when I am writing and trying to navigate my blog and it slows me down and so I figure if it slows me down it does my readers so I am helping everyone spend less time on the blogs and more on making the Home a Sanctuary.
Smiles,
Sherry
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tackling Tuesday another De-Clutter project
(the above photo isn't a link but if you look really close you can read the
blog address. Just type it into your thingy at the top. What is that called?)
I am tackling my Tuesday by continuing the August De-clutter challenge. My project today is to tackling unpacking the rest of my cookbooks. (I just had another thought. I will also tackle working on my sidebar links. I noticed a couple don't work and I have been asked how to get to the De-clutter site. If you can't get there come back tonight I'll work on that when I get home from babysitting. )
Here is a photo of some that are already out and being used.
One of my favorite things is to take vintage items and repurpose them to use in a different way. This little curio type shelf sits on my refrigerator and holds some
of my cookbooks.
I don't have a lot of dining room in this house and so all my dishs; (and there are a lot of them) are in kitchen cabinets so there isn't any other space in the kitchen for cookbooks. I tried a few on top of the stove didn't work though no vent a hood. Don't ask.
Since there isn't room in the dining room either I am working on today putting them on the very top shelf in my master closet. I know that sounds weird but remember
I like to repurpose. And besides what are you supposed to put up there anyway.
Now you have to understand that this is a huge closet!
Before I go to my projects I have one more photo to show. This is an old piece that I sort of repurposed. It holds some of our library and some things that I love to look at. It doesn't look quite like this anymore because a couple of the items found new places to live. The Texas flag is now in my Cowboys man room. I'll share
the story behind it in a Show and Tell Friday post soon. So if your interested
come by on Friday's to hear the stories.
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for
us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26 (NASB)
Before I go if you read my recent posts about God's provision I wanted to share what was in my inbox this morning. The above verse reminds me and shows me that God reaffirms me and the decisions that I struggle with. Sometimes I am so confused I don't know what to ask or which way to go he knows.
Have a happy day tackling your projects and de-cluttering.
Smiles,
Sherry
Monday, August 18, 2008
Simple Woman's Day Book/De-Clutter Project
The Simple Woman's Daybook~18 and De-clutter project (read all the way to the bottom)
For Today...Monday, August 18,2003
Outside my Window...Rain. Yea God! And the cat hanging out acting silly. He was on the window sill so I tried to let him in. He came to the porch jumped on my trunk and stretched. He's still outside!
I am thinking...I will pray about and ponder what the Lord said to me this weekend about trusting him to provide.
I am thankful for...God has provided each time. We received a check last week a day before the truck was finished in the shop. The check was a few dollars more than the exact amount. I am thankful also for the patience God is supplying me so I won't worry.
From the kitchen...Italian herb bread and probably a roast with potatoes and carrots. Yummy.
I am wearing...You don't want to know. My hair is in a pony tail as always. I really would like to get my hair cut really cute. I am tired of this all one length and pull back style.
I am reading...another novel finished the last one it was good really clean compared to most.(lately I have been needing the distraction of a book) But I am planning on reading Titus this week and to dig deeper into Philippians.
I am hoping...that the plans I am working on for the ministry really are God's I am praying also for this. I need discernment.
I am hearing...the rain and a little quiet. Cowboy is snoozing on the couch with no sound on the t.v. (how do they do that) he had a rough night last night with his knee. He over did it yesterday went to church and Sunday school then had the kids over last night. I hear the peaceful sound of his snoring and the ceiling fan.
I am creating...a new idea for a blog but it is a surprise just yet.
Around the house...More de-cluttering but haven't decided yet what. The dryer top is clean. I already have the sheets in the washer and I plan to re-arrange again the end of the living room and move an antique table I have in the kitchen to a spot in the living. I wish I had a camera to show you.
One of my favorite things...My house, which is becoming a home. And the rain when it rains like this just a steady drizzle, it is peaceful and useful.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...same as usual but I am taking action on the plans for ministry and the provision of that. That is where I need discernment to know when to act and when to continue resting on faith.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you
Thank you God that I need these today!
Below is my De-clutter project and a pray request at the very end.
Below is part of my De-clutter project for today. I finished the dresser drawers and now I am working on getting all the pictures off and on the walls. I have collected all our small framed art and photo's on the dresser and today is the day they are all going on the walls.
Below is an adorable framed drawing my mother found in a craft mall. It looks like my precious daughter and two of her favorite pets. Please come back on Friday for
Show and Tell for more photo's from this collection. And come by Saturday for a follow up to my Saturday Then Sings my Soul post. This week is all about donkeys.
Before I go I have a pray need. I mentioned alot in my daybook entry about God's provision. And if you go back to my Thankful Thursday post last week you'll see my ramblings about the ministry. I am trying really hard to have faith. And I do but it is the provision part where I stumble. And the worry about the provision. I know in my head or is it my heart I shouldn't worry. But I do. I see a ticking bomb. I see the calendar pages turn everyday. I see the bills that have to be paid this week and there is no money to pay them. There is some but not enough. And so I ask all my old and new friends to pray for me. Please pray for provision. I share this with you for one main reason. I need to trust God. On a side note I ask this of you and share with you because the biggest bill we have this week is the cable bill. And, if it isn't paid there won't be any posts for awhile and we will have no phone either. So my dear friends please lift me up. I pray that if you are reading this you see my heart. I love my blog and I love the friends that I have found. I get encouragement and I really feel God speaks to me through the things that I read and see too through this medium. I also get a Blessing because I believe and I pray that God uses me and the things that I write as a Blessing to others. This is my heart.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Daisy's Doggie Bloggy Friends and Then Sings My Soul Saturday
Daisy wants to welcome everyone to her Saturday post. This week she doesn't have a doggie friend from the blogworld; because we have spent a bunch of time working on organizing photos and we found this one. It means a lot to us so we wanted to share.
(my Then Sings My Soul post is all the way at the bottom. I hope you enjoy it.)
This is our girl with the horse that played "Cisco" in the movie Dances with Wolves.
The photo was taken on the best family vacation that we ever took. You can see by the smile on her face how happy she is just hand feed this horse.
Below is a copy of the cover of the book from our family library.
As the cowboy family we are this is one of our favorite movies of all times.
Thanks for coming by and visiting I hope that you have enjoyed our 'blast from the past'. BTW the girl child is 26 years old now; married and a mommy. And she still gets the same smile on her faces when she sees a horse.
I'll be sharing more photo's Friday for Kelli's Show and Tell come back for another visit.
When I went to get a song for my Then Sings My Soul post I couldn't help but check out the video's on you tube for the Dances With Wolves music. I found this one.
It doesn't seem to load really well but I thought the photo's at the beginning were really pretty and they reminded me of God's Creation. So I am sharing it with you today. Please go over and visit the other Then Sings My Soul posts too. Here's her link. http://signsmiraclesandwonders.blogspot.com/ or you can click on her button over on the sidebar. (The button takes you to an earlier post. The link takes you to the current post.)
(my Then Sings My Soul post is all the way at the bottom. I hope you enjoy it.)
This is our girl with the horse that played "Cisco" in the movie Dances with Wolves.
The photo was taken on the best family vacation that we ever took. You can see by the smile on her face how happy she is just hand feed this horse.
Below is a copy of the cover of the book from our family library.
As the cowboy family we are this is one of our favorite movies of all times.
Thanks for coming by and visiting I hope that you have enjoyed our 'blast from the past'. BTW the girl child is 26 years old now; married and a mommy. And she still gets the same smile on her faces when she sees a horse.
I'll be sharing more photo's Friday for Kelli's Show and Tell come back for another visit.
When I went to get a song for my Then Sings My Soul post I couldn't help but check out the video's on you tube for the Dances With Wolves music. I found this one.
It doesn't seem to load really well but I thought the photo's at the beginning were really pretty and they reminded me of God's Creation. So I am sharing it with you today. Please go over and visit the other Then Sings My Soul posts too. Here's her link. http://signsmiraclesandwonders.blogspot.com/ or you can click on her button over on the sidebar. (The button takes you to an earlier post. The link takes you to the current post.)
Friday, August 15, 2008
Show and Tell Friday
Welcome to Show and Tell Friday hosted by the amazing Kelli. Look over at my sidebar and click on her link. There are always wonderful things to find there.
Today she showed one of my favorite things a collection of bunnies.
I would like to share a couple of my favorite prints. This one hangs in our living room.
It is called "Amazing Grace" We have had it about 15 or more years. It is by a local artist named Randy Souder. He is really amazing and does churches and old houses. I love his work. I love architecture and so I am drawn to this type of work. Also I love churches that look like churches. If you like this type of work you can check out his website.
Below is Rock of Ages.
This one unfortunately is in storage at the present time. It was dropped during the recent move and the glass broke. Hopefully someday soon we will be able to restore it.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my lovely prints. Don't forget to check out Kelli's blog today. And come back later I'll be adding my De-clutter post and tell you what is going on here outside! I have a Praise the Lord I'll share later.
And here is my De-clutter project . . .
My laundry room/closet. Are you like me? Does your dryer get clutter with stuff that needs to be put away? It seems I just can't keep it clean. So today I my
de-clutter project is to get it cleaned off. It might take me all day. LOL No really it should only take a couple of minutes. Then maybe I can finish my cleaning the dresser job I started yesterday. That yes I didn't finish.
I am off to De-clutter and when I am done I'll be visiting Show and Tells. See you soon! I hope!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Thankful Thursday and August DeClutter Challenge
Updated to include my Thankful Thursday list . . .
This morning I went over to Iris's over at Sting My Heart (our wonderful Thankful Thursday hostess)here is the verse she is sharing today.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes…” ~ Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV - emphasis Iris's mine)
Iris asked for prayer for a specific ministry please go over and read her post. It was interesting to me because I have been thinking all week about what I wanted to write about today and the thankful list that I wanted to share. I really wanted to write about my house. I know I have mentioned it many,many times but I am just so happy here and the whole thing is, it is because God brought us here. He worked out all the details and then some.
Before I write my list I have to share why this means so much to me. Almost 5 years ago God gave my Cowboy a vision for ministry. To reach an "unreached peoples group" called Teenagers. Specifically at-risk teens. We were laypeople working in youth ministry in our church and he began to see that it was difficult to get the teens to come any time other than our Wednesday outreach activity. We had an amazing youth minister at the time and we had a band that drew in lots of kids. There were many kids that got saved but they never came back to church and they never got discipled. My Cowboy prayed and asked God to show him how we could reach these teens. God spoke to him and the concept of the ministry Auto Mission was birthed.
Cowboy knew that boys like two things cars and girls. He figured he didn't know much about girls (he's still trying to figure me out!) but he knew a little about cars.
After much prayer we invested much of our earnings into the ministry and in the first year our church got on board and supported us with a major amount of money.
In the first year over 300 boys came through our program. They were assigned by teen courts to do community service for misdemeanor offences. We were allowed by the teen courts to "witness" to them. In fact one teen court representative asked us to "witness".
Within the first 6 months we realized the need for a similar girls program. That is how I became full time involved in ministry.
And that is why I began this blog. Because I lost myself. This blog is about My journey back to finding myself, and balancing my personal life with ministry and also about my journey toward a closer relationship with our Lord.
As people say it is so easy to get consumed with things "good things" and loose sight of the Best. Our Lord.
During this first year God Blessed richly Blessed our personal business (my Cowboy was an egg broker) and we were able to put personal money into the ministry. We started all this with only a desire to reach kids. No experience in managing a non-profit only a heart to help.
We learned alot and God blessed us. We had to file with the IRS to become a non-profit. Everyone we spoke to told us it could take months even up to six months.
We got approval for Auto Mission in 3 weeks. Six months later we began the process for Mission Makeover approval came in 2 weeks. Our God provides.
Toward the end of our second year the work that God gave us was overwhelming. Not in a bad way. We were on the top of the roller coaster and going on a ride that we just couldn't believe. Kids were changing their lives. They were staying in school they were staying out of gangs. We were receiving acknowledgement from courts; we were receiving awards. Everything was going great.
In November we went on a cruise with our daughter and friends. While we were away our personal business collapsed. No more personal income. By this time we were a month from celebrating two years in fulltime ministry. We knew that God did not want us to seek out employment and we began the pain stacking process of seeking more financial support for the ministry.
We began a new journey. A faith journey. And this is the journey we are still on today.
We spoke to churches. We spoke to friends and volunteers and spoke to civic groups.
Funds began to trickle in. And when I say trickle, I mean trickle. We did fundraisers. We worked long hours. Our biggest expense was the rent for teen center. We sold personal possessions. We fought.(with each other) Actually I fought. I was a brat. I was frustrated. It is really hard to now rent is due and there is no money for it. We had a commercial building and rent for your own personal home. And some how every month it was there. For everything. It wasn't easy in fact it was really hard. There were times the electric wasn't paid in time. There were times the water wasn't paid. We had to beg the companies to give us a break and turn us back on or not turn us off.
We lost the lease on our first teen center building because the landlord got someone to pay more and on time every month. He gave us two weeks to move. We found another building and stayed for year then that building was sold when our first years lease was up.
We found another building and then lost major support from our State convention because of crazy political stuff within our denomination. We lost support from our church for many reasons but mainly because we began ministering to kids that are actually in the teenager prison. We lost individual supporters because people were just afraid to be involved.
But God provides. And still we go on.
God has provided ways for us to continue to minister to the kids. In January of this year our food pantry project began. The first few months it was hard because we basically did it out of our house. It was an ordeal.
In June we again began to be tested. We were told by our landlady that they needed us to move. (We had been living in our house for a year and a half rent free. She donated the house to us) Our house and 10 acres was prime commercial real estate. Today the house is no longer there and they are building medical offices on the property.
We had to be moved by June 15th.
We began to look and look and pray and look and pray for a house. I began to pray that God would allow us to keep all our animals. Finding a house that we could manage to pay rent on and house all our animals we knew would be a miracle. We knew that God had a plan and that he would not take us this far and then just turn his back on us.
We went through a couple of weeks of so much stress. We found a house just a few blocks from both our mothers. We filled out an application and paid a fee which we really couldn't afford. The people never called us back. We called them a few days later knowing the answer. We continued to look and pack and pack and pack. Not only were we packing our personal belongings but since the loss of the lease on our building all the supplies and files from the ministry and some furniture and the food pantry is in our home. We packed, and packed and packed.
We looked for houses. We prayed and prayed and told everyone we know about our need for a house. We began to call old friends to help take the animals.
We drove over an hour away to look at houses.
Everytime we found something that would meet our needs it would be rented before we got there.
Finally one Saturday after looking all morning we saw a realtor sign. We remembered a realtor that helped us find a house when we moved back here from Missouri. We called her. We told her our needs and she found our house by that evening and that is where we live now.
God provided. We had just enough funds to pay deposits (no pet deposit) and to pay movers to move our big furniture. Because of the situation with Cowboy's knee he couldn't do a lot of lifting.
God provided. God came through. At the 11th Hour he brought us to the most amazing home.
We are Blessed. We are thankful. I know this is a really long post. But for a while God has been placing it on my heart to share more about this Faith journey.
I now a lot of you out there are on similar journeys. I know a lot of you have had struggles with your church homes and hurt and frustrations. I know I have been there. There have been so many times that I have just had to lean not on my own understanding. I have also had to trust when there just didn't seem like there was any hope.
I have no idea what lesson God is teaching us. Things are not better. We barely pay our rent. We barely get the funds we need for the food pantry and our other programs. We barely have money for gas. But we have a home and today I am thankful for our home.
And, we got to bring all our animals, that at present begging for breakfast and so I close this post without the Thankful list I promised but I will add it later after I feed the multitudes.
Update at 2:45
I got called by daughter this morning. Her puppy wasn't feeling well and she was worried so I had to run over and keep the baby while she took the puppy to the vet. It turns out he was having a reaction from shots. He is fine.
Before I begin my list the biggest thing I am thankful for is that I get to work full time in ministry.
Here's my thankful list:
1. I am most thankful for my house. God provided much more for us than we imagined.
2. I am thankful that I am flexible and can help out our daughter at a moments notice when needed.
3. I am thankful that we were able to keep all our horses. We have some acreage for them.
4. I am thankful for my bedroom. I have all my furniture in my bedroom for the first time in 6 years. That means both nightstands, the lingerie chestand the dresser. Plus I added Cowboys rocker and added an armior for the t.v.
(we haven't had a t.v. in the bedroom for over 15 years. I relented. Funny thing is he has watched it one time!)
5. I am thankful that I have a huge master bathroom. No tub but there is a tub just down the hall.
6. I am thankful that my washer and dryer are in the bathroom hidden behind doors.
I know that sounds weird but. Really think about it. We have no kids at home. I can take the sheets right off the bed and put them in the washer.
7. I am thankful that it is exactly 18 steps from the front hall to the bedroom and 15 steps more across the living room to the kitchen. I love the bedroom at the rear of the house and the long hallway for photos.
8. I am thankful for my bedroom closet. It is a real walk in closet. I even have a bench in there that we can sit on. It is a pretty bench we got at my favorite antique shop. I'll take a photo soon. I also have an antique wardrobe on one end that holds our coats. There is a window and I can look out at the someday soon flower garden.
9. I am thankful for the side yard and that I can put in a garden.
10. I am thankful for my kitchen. It is small but it has 32 cabinets. All my dishes are put away and I have clean counters. (Most of the time)
11. I am thankful for a long front porch to hold our 4 wooden rockers with room to spare for more rockers or something pretty.
12. I am thankful I have a sewing room with a view of the large back deck and backyard. And someday soon when I get all the extra boxes out I'll get to enjoy it.
13. I am thankful Cowboy has his own "man" room that he can listen to music, watch his t.v. smoke a cigar (I said it is a "man" room) and entertain our son in love, and read.
14. I am thankful that I have a small entrance hall with the perfect wall to hang a quilt. I already hung my Patriotic quilt. I have to finish my Halloween quilt and get it hung.
15. I am thankful that I have a place for my computer.
And last but not least I am thankful that along with all the above there is the cutest little building just 10 steps across the backyard that we have the food pantry in right now. Someday when we get to get another building our little building will be a potting shed and play house for the grand kids.
And I know that there are many other reasons that I am thankful for but I think I should stop at 15. If there was an award for the longest post of the day it would probably end up here.
I really hope that if you dropped by today that you were Blessed in someway by reading this really,really long post. I hope that some of my ramblings showed you how great our God is and that he is always there to help us and to protect us.
Thank you for stopping in and taking the time to read and please leave a comment.
And don't forget to come by tomorrow for Show and Tell and also visit Kelli.
Oh I almost forgot my De-clutter job today. Remember I mentioned my dresser. Well it has spent the last 4 years as a sofa table in the den. So my de-clutter job is to take all the drawers out and remove everything organize it and find new homes for all the things in it that don't really go in a bedroom and then we can use it for what it was meant for!
Blessings.
This morning I went over to Iris's over at Sting My Heart (our wonderful Thankful Thursday hostess)here is the verse she is sharing today.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes…” ~ Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV - emphasis Iris's mine)
Iris asked for prayer for a specific ministry please go over and read her post. It was interesting to me because I have been thinking all week about what I wanted to write about today and the thankful list that I wanted to share. I really wanted to write about my house. I know I have mentioned it many,many times but I am just so happy here and the whole thing is, it is because God brought us here. He worked out all the details and then some.
Before I write my list I have to share why this means so much to me. Almost 5 years ago God gave my Cowboy a vision for ministry. To reach an "unreached peoples group" called Teenagers. Specifically at-risk teens. We were laypeople working in youth ministry in our church and he began to see that it was difficult to get the teens to come any time other than our Wednesday outreach activity. We had an amazing youth minister at the time and we had a band that drew in lots of kids. There were many kids that got saved but they never came back to church and they never got discipled. My Cowboy prayed and asked God to show him how we could reach these teens. God spoke to him and the concept of the ministry Auto Mission was birthed.
Cowboy knew that boys like two things cars and girls. He figured he didn't know much about girls (he's still trying to figure me out!) but he knew a little about cars.
After much prayer we invested much of our earnings into the ministry and in the first year our church got on board and supported us with a major amount of money.
In the first year over 300 boys came through our program. They were assigned by teen courts to do community service for misdemeanor offences. We were allowed by the teen courts to "witness" to them. In fact one teen court representative asked us to "witness".
Within the first 6 months we realized the need for a similar girls program. That is how I became full time involved in ministry.
And that is why I began this blog. Because I lost myself. This blog is about My journey back to finding myself, and balancing my personal life with ministry and also about my journey toward a closer relationship with our Lord.
As people say it is so easy to get consumed with things "good things" and loose sight of the Best. Our Lord.
During this first year God Blessed richly Blessed our personal business (my Cowboy was an egg broker) and we were able to put personal money into the ministry. We started all this with only a desire to reach kids. No experience in managing a non-profit only a heart to help.
We learned alot and God blessed us. We had to file with the IRS to become a non-profit. Everyone we spoke to told us it could take months even up to six months.
We got approval for Auto Mission in 3 weeks. Six months later we began the process for Mission Makeover approval came in 2 weeks. Our God provides.
Toward the end of our second year the work that God gave us was overwhelming. Not in a bad way. We were on the top of the roller coaster and going on a ride that we just couldn't believe. Kids were changing their lives. They were staying in school they were staying out of gangs. We were receiving acknowledgement from courts; we were receiving awards. Everything was going great.
In November we went on a cruise with our daughter and friends. While we were away our personal business collapsed. No more personal income. By this time we were a month from celebrating two years in fulltime ministry. We knew that God did not want us to seek out employment and we began the pain stacking process of seeking more financial support for the ministry.
We began a new journey. A faith journey. And this is the journey we are still on today.
We spoke to churches. We spoke to friends and volunteers and spoke to civic groups.
Funds began to trickle in. And when I say trickle, I mean trickle. We did fundraisers. We worked long hours. Our biggest expense was the rent for teen center. We sold personal possessions. We fought.(with each other) Actually I fought. I was a brat. I was frustrated. It is really hard to now rent is due and there is no money for it. We had a commercial building and rent for your own personal home. And some how every month it was there. For everything. It wasn't easy in fact it was really hard. There were times the electric wasn't paid in time. There were times the water wasn't paid. We had to beg the companies to give us a break and turn us back on or not turn us off.
We lost the lease on our first teen center building because the landlord got someone to pay more and on time every month. He gave us two weeks to move. We found another building and stayed for year then that building was sold when our first years lease was up.
We found another building and then lost major support from our State convention because of crazy political stuff within our denomination. We lost support from our church for many reasons but mainly because we began ministering to kids that are actually in the teenager prison. We lost individual supporters because people were just afraid to be involved.
But God provides. And still we go on.
God has provided ways for us to continue to minister to the kids. In January of this year our food pantry project began. The first few months it was hard because we basically did it out of our house. It was an ordeal.
In June we again began to be tested. We were told by our landlady that they needed us to move. (We had been living in our house for a year and a half rent free. She donated the house to us) Our house and 10 acres was prime commercial real estate. Today the house is no longer there and they are building medical offices on the property.
We had to be moved by June 15th.
We began to look and look and pray and look and pray for a house. I began to pray that God would allow us to keep all our animals. Finding a house that we could manage to pay rent on and house all our animals we knew would be a miracle. We knew that God had a plan and that he would not take us this far and then just turn his back on us.
We went through a couple of weeks of so much stress. We found a house just a few blocks from both our mothers. We filled out an application and paid a fee which we really couldn't afford. The people never called us back. We called them a few days later knowing the answer. We continued to look and pack and pack and pack. Not only were we packing our personal belongings but since the loss of the lease on our building all the supplies and files from the ministry and some furniture and the food pantry is in our home. We packed, and packed and packed.
We looked for houses. We prayed and prayed and told everyone we know about our need for a house. We began to call old friends to help take the animals.
We drove over an hour away to look at houses.
Everytime we found something that would meet our needs it would be rented before we got there.
Finally one Saturday after looking all morning we saw a realtor sign. We remembered a realtor that helped us find a house when we moved back here from Missouri. We called her. We told her our needs and she found our house by that evening and that is where we live now.
God provided. We had just enough funds to pay deposits (no pet deposit) and to pay movers to move our big furniture. Because of the situation with Cowboy's knee he couldn't do a lot of lifting.
God provided. God came through. At the 11th Hour he brought us to the most amazing home.
We are Blessed. We are thankful. I know this is a really long post. But for a while God has been placing it on my heart to share more about this Faith journey.
I now a lot of you out there are on similar journeys. I know a lot of you have had struggles with your church homes and hurt and frustrations. I know I have been there. There have been so many times that I have just had to lean not on my own understanding. I have also had to trust when there just didn't seem like there was any hope.
I have no idea what lesson God is teaching us. Things are not better. We barely pay our rent. We barely get the funds we need for the food pantry and our other programs. We barely have money for gas. But we have a home and today I am thankful for our home.
And, we got to bring all our animals, that at present begging for breakfast and so I close this post without the Thankful list I promised but I will add it later after I feed the multitudes.
Update at 2:45
I got called by daughter this morning. Her puppy wasn't feeling well and she was worried so I had to run over and keep the baby while she took the puppy to the vet. It turns out he was having a reaction from shots. He is fine.
Before I begin my list the biggest thing I am thankful for is that I get to work full time in ministry.
Here's my thankful list:
1. I am most thankful for my house. God provided much more for us than we imagined.
2. I am thankful that I am flexible and can help out our daughter at a moments notice when needed.
3. I am thankful that we were able to keep all our horses. We have some acreage for them.
4. I am thankful for my bedroom. I have all my furniture in my bedroom for the first time in 6 years. That means both nightstands, the lingerie chestand the dresser. Plus I added Cowboys rocker and added an armior for the t.v.
(we haven't had a t.v. in the bedroom for over 15 years. I relented. Funny thing is he has watched it one time!)
5. I am thankful that I have a huge master bathroom. No tub but there is a tub just down the hall.
6. I am thankful that my washer and dryer are in the bathroom hidden behind doors.
I know that sounds weird but. Really think about it. We have no kids at home. I can take the sheets right off the bed and put them in the washer.
7. I am thankful that it is exactly 18 steps from the front hall to the bedroom and 15 steps more across the living room to the kitchen. I love the bedroom at the rear of the house and the long hallway for photos.
8. I am thankful for my bedroom closet. It is a real walk in closet. I even have a bench in there that we can sit on. It is a pretty bench we got at my favorite antique shop. I'll take a photo soon. I also have an antique wardrobe on one end that holds our coats. There is a window and I can look out at the someday soon flower garden.
9. I am thankful for the side yard and that I can put in a garden.
10. I am thankful for my kitchen. It is small but it has 32 cabinets. All my dishes are put away and I have clean counters. (Most of the time)
11. I am thankful for a long front porch to hold our 4 wooden rockers with room to spare for more rockers or something pretty.
12. I am thankful I have a sewing room with a view of the large back deck and backyard. And someday soon when I get all the extra boxes out I'll get to enjoy it.
13. I am thankful Cowboy has his own "man" room that he can listen to music, watch his t.v. smoke a cigar (I said it is a "man" room) and entertain our son in love, and read.
14. I am thankful that I have a small entrance hall with the perfect wall to hang a quilt. I already hung my Patriotic quilt. I have to finish my Halloween quilt and get it hung.
15. I am thankful that I have a place for my computer.
And last but not least I am thankful that along with all the above there is the cutest little building just 10 steps across the backyard that we have the food pantry in right now. Someday when we get to get another building our little building will be a potting shed and play house for the grand kids.
And I know that there are many other reasons that I am thankful for but I think I should stop at 15. If there was an award for the longest post of the day it would probably end up here.
I really hope that if you dropped by today that you were Blessed in someway by reading this really,really long post. I hope that some of my ramblings showed you how great our God is and that he is always there to help us and to protect us.
Thank you for stopping in and taking the time to read and please leave a comment.
And don't forget to come by tomorrow for Show and Tell and also visit Kelli.
Oh I almost forgot my De-clutter job today. Remember I mentioned my dresser. Well it has spent the last 4 years as a sofa table in the den. So my de-clutter job is to take all the drawers out and remove everything organize it and find new homes for all the things in it that don't really go in a bedroom and then we can use it for what it was meant for!
Blessings.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Word Filled Wednesday
How Great is the love of the father has laved on us,
that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
1 John 3:1
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Please visit Amy Dean at the160acreawood.com
Amy does an awesome job of hosting Word Filled Wednesday and she is my guest write each Wednesday. Below is Amy's Blessing to you.
I hope you feel loved by this verse! Those seeking will know that God loves you, and those who already know God will reaffirm their love for/from Him.
God Bless! Amy Dean
Thanks for visiting my blog please stop in to see Amy and the others. Have a great day.
Sherry
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Tackling Tuesday by De-cluttering
Welcome to my Tuesday post...today I am tackling a couple of things with 5 minutes for mom. Thier button is on my sidebar. But I am also de-cluttering with Deb and Marcia. All these ladies are true inspiration to help me get my house in order.
This is the first job I am tackling. I have been inspired by all the ladies baking bread. It is always so yummy but it is also frugal. And I need frugal. So I'll be having a loaf ready for dinner tonight.
I am tackling and decluttering my blog today so check back tomorrow and see all the new things and the makeover! But I am also tackling the boxes that are still left to un pack. I have 3 boxes still left in the living room that I haven't had the energy to tackle and there is a mountain in my sewing room still!
And I am tackling going back over to Peggy's Simple Woman's Daybook and reading all the entries posted yesterday. Lot's of these ladies post really sweet entries and no one comments and I know I love comments so I am going over to say "Hi".
Oh and one more thing. I am working at making my Home a Sanctuary. I joined Rachel Ann and became a Company Girl (see the button) and today she suggested finishing something you seem to never finish. Like the last of the pots and pans in the sink, or taking out the trash after it is collected. Well I took trash out to the curb last night. Then left a sack in the kitchen but this morning. I tackled it and took it out and got my house a little closer to a real Sanctuary!
Enjoy your Tuesday and let me know if your tackling anything.
Smiles