Word Filled Wednesday

I hope you are all having an awesome Wednesday. This beutiful illustration of God's word is from Amy over at the160acreawood.wordpress.com

I have enjoyed being able to use Amy's wonderful illustrations and give myself a break from posting on Wed. I like to post everyday because I hope that someone is blessed by what they read here. I know that there are many blogs that I read including Amy's that really bless me.

My Wednesdays are getting busier and busier. I haven't written alot about the work I do but I think it is time to share with you all what I do when I am not writing,sewing or playing with the dog or all the other animals.

I work with a ministry to teenage kids that have been incarcerated. We have a program with a local halfway house and we also provide a discipleship and mentoring program for girls that are in an independant living program in Houston. And, we just started a program for teens in our area that are on parole. We provide groceries for them through our local food bank. On Wednesday mornings we arrive at the foodbank at 9:00 (it is a 45 min. drive so we have to get up really early) and we pick up food that we bring back and divide up into sacks or boxes for the kids. This is an amazing ministry. Although we only began last week it is such a blessing to us already. And, the most amazing thing is the parole office allows us to put a devotional or tract in each sack. This week we included the Lord's Prayer from The Message Bible. And here is a photo of what the boxes look like.

Here is a sample of what is inside the box.


We have already heard stories from the parole officers about how much these families appreciate this small amount of food. I am Blessed.

Here's my verse of the week . . .
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commands that I give you today are to be upon your hear.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates.
Talk about them when you sit and when you walk down the road

Bible Verse Memory

God has been putting it on my heart to memorize his word. Recently I wrote about verses that are buried in my head. I know many of us have those verses that you remember part of or even all of them but don't know where they are.
I work for a ministry that is dedicated to helping troubled teens. Most of them have had no experience with church and have little knowledge at all about God let alone the Bible.
There are a few though that do have some past experience and sometimes even remember verses. But it saddens me and makes me feel totally unprepared for what God has called me to do when one of them asks me about a verse or its reference and I don't know where it is.
And, sometimes even the volunteers that work with me will ask me questions about Bible verses. I guess because I am in a leadership position and I am the one that does devotionals with them and the girls they naturally assume I have the Bible memorized and can answer all their questions. If they only knew how wrong they are!
A few months ago one of my volunteers began teaching the girls how to memorize scripture. I don't know where she learned this method but I decided to start using it and so today I'll share it with you. I have adapted it a little and I think that is what works with me.
I am a visual learner. If I see something over and over I remember it much easier than if I am told something. Or I listen to it. I also learn by doing.
In this method you take a verse and you break it down into phrases.
Step One: Break verse into phrases
Step Two: Recite the reference.
Step Three: Recite the reference with the first phrase 3 times.
This is where I adapted it. I type the reference and the first phrase three times.
Sometimes 4,5 or 6 times. Till I can type it without looking back at the verse.
Step Four: Add the next phrase. Reciting the reference and the first phrase and phrase two. Recite or type three times. (4,5 or 6 times if your slow like me)
Continue with this method through the entire verse.
Here's the important part. Say the reference before and after the verse.

Here's this weeks verse broken down.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all your soul with all your heart and with all your strength.
These commands that I give you today are to be upon your heart.

Yesterday I used the method and today I typed this part of the verse with looking back at my notes. I did begin working on it Sunday.
Another thing that I do is I go ahead and type it on Sunday I cover an entire sheet of paper with the verse. Then I can cut the repeated verse apart and put around the house so I can work on it throughout the day in whatever room I am in.

This method has been very effective for me. I am going to start using the method of writing it out and putting reminders around the mission where I work. Each week we will have a verse of the week and we will have it written and posted throughout the building. I think I will have the girls write the verse in pretty colored markers.

If you are struggling with memorizing scripture. Try this method. It works for me maybe it will work for you. Maybe before you start reading blogs work on the memory verse and start your day off with the Lords word.

Have a Blessed Day, Sherry (I wish I could figure out how some of you guys write your name pretty. Another one of those dummies at blogging posts!)

The end of the horse that you don't want to see . . .

Interesting title huh? I needed last weeks verse this morning. But as I said before I didn't completely learn it. Here it is anyway belatedly.
Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

This morning I witnessed a rodeo as I went out into the rain and mud. This is the end of the horse that I faced as I walked through the gate into his stall. Actually I didn't make it in!
Only it wasn't as docile as this. I have no idea what the old man was thinking.
He turned his rear to me. Put his head down and proceeded to give me a nice little show. All the while I am backing back out of the gate as I am carrying his breakfast. I can only hope that he was letting the "short people"(two mini donkeys) know not to come through that gate with me. Of course I yelled at him and after a nice little show he settled down. My heart didn't but I popped his rear and yelled again. Now I must add that all the while this was going on Daisy stayed exactly where I had told her to with her nose under the gate. This could be because yesterday she got her you know what busted for not staying where she was told. She just loves to help feed those horses but she doesn't know how to act around them.
I share all this with you because I believe it was actually a Blessing to see. This horse is 26 years old this year. And he still has a lot of spunk! And as you can see from this photo he is my daughters delight. This photo was taken in '04 so he was a youngster then. LOL. I was just thinking the other day she needs to take him to one last show this summer.
I might have been wrong he might need to go to a rodeo instead.
Now that I am back in the house and dry and not looking at his rear and his feet are not in my face I am actually smiling about the entire episode. I know some of you are reading this and thinking that this women is a nut. But some of you know exactly what I mean.

Switching leads . . .(that is equine lingo it means switching gears) Here is part of the verse of the week.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength.
These commands I give you to be upon your heart.

That is only half of the passage but I typed that from memory and it is only Monday!

Tomorrow I will be writing about the method that I use to memorize and about the wonderful friend that shared it with me.

So till then give thanks in song and Happy Trails
Blessings,Sherry

Easter Give a Way

Before you read my post I need some help. I tried to link some friends on my sidebar but it doesn't work. Can anyone tell me how to do it? (adding my dummies at blogging to the label for this one!)




I am doing a fun Easter give a way. If you homeschool leave me a comment about why you homeschool. If you don't but wish you could come on over and leave me a comment too. And if your a grandparent whose grandchild is homeschooled you can enter too.
These are mostly girly craft items like beads and stuff. But there are some fun bean bags and there are some of those plastic things that you design and iron.(I am still sorting through stuff so I will be throwing in some things too) They were all donated to our ministry but they are things that we actually wouldn't need for our regular activites so I want to pass them on to you.
I was Blessed to be able to homeschool my daughter for one year of school. It was an amazing time for all of us. This week I'll be writing about homeschooling and I'll post some of our photo's. I hope each of you are Blessed this week.

I didn't do very well with the verse of the week last week. And duh it was short and simple. I just didn't sit down and work on it like I did the week before.
I am really challenging myself this week because what I want to memorize is 6 verses!
But it is a passage that needs to be memorized together.
I mentioned the verse memory class at my church in an earlier post. This past weekend they had a women's retreat. I didn't get to go but one of my friends said that one young lady (maybe young has to do with it) recited the entire book of James. Wow. And here I am stressing over 6 verses. Here's my Verse of the week. I already know part of it so it should be easy.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your house and gates.

Today Lord I ask you to give me strength to get through this next week. Give strength also to everyone out there that is following you and trusting you and teaching thier children in the way that you direct them. Give them strength and courage to do what you ask of them to do. And be with the children this week as they learn and study. Give them a tender spirit.

This is my grandson. He is homeschooled. Maybe this is science class! He was so proud of his find. Do you think he is all boy?

Daisy

I taught my dog a trick. They say that you can't teach an old dog a new trick. this is proof you can. I guess if 5 years is old. I have been promising to tell you guys Daisy's story.
But before I do. Have you seen those commercials for dog food that show the dogs in the pound. I don't even remember now which food it is because everytime that the comercial comes on I want to change it. It is just so depressing to me. They are trying to make this big deal that if you buy the brand of dog food that x number of dollars goes to animal shelters. I don't disagree I would be a big advocate of "no kill shelters" but I just think there is a better way to advertise than showing those sad dogs in cages with no hope. The least they could do is end the commercial with the dogs getting adopted.
That must of been the way that Daisy felt before I found her. Daisy came home with me just over a year ago.
Her story shows how God is "into" even the seemingly minor parts of your life. He will provide hope and reasurrance and love in many ways. You might be skeptical. You might think he isn't interested in seemingly silly or minor things. But I know he is all about giving us a purpose and a hope and a future. And the things that we might think are small add up to a purpose and a future.
God brought Daisy into my life. I was in a really,really bad place. I was having to quote scripture. Psalms 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those you are crushed in spirit. I was at a point where I was crushed in spirit. I was broken. Because of circumstances out of my control I had for a time lost one of the most important people in my life. I was about to break mentally. My husband and I both at the time were just going through the paces. No one would suspect that anything was wrong. We were working in full time ministry. We were active in church. All appeared well with the world. But personally it was not.
But God pulled me up and pulled me out of the state that I was in and he used Daisy to do it.
It all started late one Saturday night. I tend to stay on the computer a lot (right now it is 10:20 on Sat. night. . . hmmm.) My husband had already gone to bed but I wasn't tired so I went to watch t.v. As usual there was nothing on. I kept scrolling through the stations and couldn't find anything to occupy me with. I flipped to the local access channel and the were showing activities at the local rec. center and local news. And then they started scrolling across the screen animals in the local shelter. Guess who's photo was there. I was not looking for a dog. I knew that my husband would not agree to bringing another dog into the house. He had said in no uncertain terms that once the two dogs we had were gone we wouldn't get anymore. He was tired of being tired down and not being able to go anywhere. He was tired of shedding. He was tired in the later years; of their health problems and all that incurs. When I saw her photo something inside me said she's yours. You need to go and get that dog. There was text across her photo that said urgent. (does that not pull at your heart? It did mine) Now realize this is late Sat. night. I went to bed and couldn't stop thinking about her. I went through Sunday and didn't say a word to anyone. On Monday I emailed the pound and asked about her. She was still there. I learned that she had been there for 45 days. The officer told me they only keep dogs for 30 days and then they put them down. But she was special so they kept her to give her a chance. I thought about her and prayed about her. I still didn't mention her to my husband. I knew in the back of my mind he would say no. On Tuesday I went to a ladies bible study at my church. On the way I stopped at the animal shelter to see Daisy. She immediately tore at my heart. The police officer told me her name was Daisy. How he knew that I don't know. He said that she had been abandoned in a back yard. He family had just walked away and left her. I told the officer I would go home and talk to my husband. I left and went onto bible study. And during that bible study time I realized I needed to leave and go and get my dog.
I went and picked her up. I asked the officer to help me get her to my truck. I wasn't sure if she would jump in so he helped me. She didn't know how to jump into my bit F350 43 wheel drive truck. So he picked up and put her in.
I took her home. I walked in the door and found my husband in the office. He looked up and asked. "What is that?" I said. "My dog." he responded. "Where did you get her?" I said. "At the pound." he said. "Take her back." I said. "No." and I cried. I was sitting down by this time and Daisy had sat down in front of me. I didn't ask her to she just sat and looked at me. I looked at my husband and said. "She is my dog and I am keeping her." through my tears. He said what are you going to do with her when we're gone. I answered. "I won't leave her. She will go with me everywhere I go."
And she does. He relented. I knew he would. His bark is worse than his bite. Daisy didn't really like him at first. He has one her over by offering treats.
On Friday he went to the doctor. One the way home we were driving along and he pulled into McDonalds. He bought the dog an ice cream. This is the man that didn't want more animals.
Now today I am healed by the love of this dog. God brought this dog into my life. Maybe to give me something that I could love. To replace in a small way my loss. Or maybe to show me that he is in control. That even though things seem dark that he will give us a sign. A glimpse of his love.
I see God's love every day. Because Daisy like God loves me unconditionally. It doesn't matter what I do. What I say. I don't have to perform. She just loves.
God just loves.

And so...she stays...he doens't suggest taking her back anymore.
And the most amazing thing is that we have looked at the local access channel at least a dozen times. They don't show photo's of the animals. Still think God isn't into the small things?

Verse of the week
Psalms 28:7
the Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart turst in him and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Easter Give a way

Update . . . I am so sad. No one commented about the giveway. I'll repost later and add some more interesting items.

My Friday Show and Tell is below this post. . . please check it out too.

Easter is a special holiday. And many people are already posting their decorations. I really enjoyed my Valentines Day Party but for this special holiday I wanted to do something different. I hope you read my Thursday post about homeschooling. The blessing that I received when homeschooling my daughter is the reason that I want to do this give a way. And so here's the deal. This cute little bunny along with this

and this
Is the give a way. There are a lot of craft beads for bracelets or whatever you want. There are some stickers that I didn't photo. On another post I'll post exactly what is already set aside. I'll shove all this in a priority mail box and send it off to the lucky winner.
Here are the rules. Read them really close because this important.
If you are a homeschooler please come over and leave me a comment about homeschooling. Why you homeschool or what it means to you to be able to homeschool.
If you are not a homeschooler and you would like to homeschool leave a comment too. I'll be writing another day about my thoughts so you won't be alone in commenting if you are not actually homeschooling.
Maybe your a grandparent and your grandchildren are homeschooled. Leave me a comment.
I will draw on Palm Sunday and then get the box in the mail to you on Monday the 17th
oh that is St. Patricks day. I'll stick in a little green!)
Have fun and pass on to your friends.
Happy Easter
p.s. I don't know how to make this a sticky post but I'll mention everyday so pass it on.

Show and Tell Friday

Good morning today is Show and Tell again. I just love this day of the week. I hope you all like my S&T's as much as I like yours. I can't wait to finish typing so I can run over to Kelli's and see her amazing S&T. And, visit everyone else. (How do you add the link in a post? Can anyone tell me?)
Without further ado . . . My Show and Tell today is my Gameroom bathroom first is the rug.

I love this little rug. I ordered it off Ebay when I decorated this bathroom in the last house for our daughter. She was away at college and I wanted her bathroom at home to reflect her favorite things. Not elephants this time. Here most favorite things. Horses.
Next is one of the walls. The plate hanging on the wall I also got on ebay. The light switch is one of those metal ones. And the rodeo number framed ever so special is my number. I think it was from one of the only Horse Shows (not rodeo) that I ever participated in. I had this awesome mare. And I think this is from a Halter class probably. I never showed much because I was always the wrangler/groom for the kids. So this number is special.


Next are photo's of my son. When we moved into the current house the things got moved into the game room bath and so I added a few things and changed it up. (I wish I had taken photo's of the first bathroom there was this cute little shelf and we had boots on it and some other things) Anyway here's the next photo.


On the right the one with the red ribbon is our son at maybe 10. This was taken at a Rodeo. Way back then the church that we went to had this awesome rodeo every year. It was really neat for everyone because it gave city folks a chance to live like we all think Texas is. As it was. (As it should be if you ask me.) On the left is my son much older with my gandson. My grandson calls me Texas Grandma.
Last I couldn't show all these photo's without showing this one. I had to take it off the wall and scan it because the bathroom is tiny and I couldn't get a good photo. Here's the neatest one I think.

This is our son and his reining horse futurity colt. This colt he raised. This photo is taken in Okla. City at the NRHA reining futurity. He drove from Missouri and we were back in Texas by then so we drove there to see him. Although he didn't place this was an amazing opportunity and I was a really proud mama. Isn't he handsome! I'll write more about him and Speck in a Saturday post.

I hope you've enjoy my Show and Tell. Go over and visit Kelli. And don't forget to come back tomorrow and see Daisy's story and I am having a give away. So come tomorrow and check it out.
Happy Show and Tell Friday.

Thankful Thursday/Homeschooling

What are all the things I am thankful for? How much time do you have? I am/was a stay at home mom. (more on that later)
I am thankful for the beautiful sunshine today. Every morning when I wake up and the sun is shinning I am so happy.
I love to look at all the photo's of snow but I love my mostly warm Texas weather.
I lived briefly in Boulder,Colo. now I could have stayed there but the Lord took us to Missouri. And thinking about living there reminds me of something that I am very thankful for.
We had some great family times in both places. I would have to say the best part was I got the opportunity to homeschool our daughter. She happened to be 15 when we moved to Boulder and celebrated her 16th birthday. Because of a lot of circumstances we ended up homeschooling her 10th grade year. I enjoyed no I loved it. We had an awesome time. We were pretty flexible in our curriculum because she had been in Christian Private school. And we knew that she would be back in a school environment. So we only did a computer/keyboarding class,english,history and a home and family living class and P.E. She was able to use her horse back riding as her P.E. credit. (notice no math no science. . . her instructor was not accredited in these areas. LOL)
When I started writing this post I really didn't intend to write about this although I have been thinking about it for awhile. And, I would love to show you some pictures. So I am going to cut this short. And go find some photo's to scan. So hang on and I'll write more a little later about our whole experience. And maybe open a discusion with some of you on Home Schooling and being a Stay at Home Mom. (notice I don't shorten that) If you are a Stay at Home Mom be proud. You are Blessed. You have lots and lots to be Thankful for on this Thankful Thursday.
And most of all don't let anyone challange you or ? you or your sanity or degrade you for your decision to Stay at Home.
If that is the case for you or you struggle remember this . . .

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Psalms 28:7

Word Filled Wednesday

Thank you Amy. Please visit Amy at
the160acreawoods.wordpress.com

Joy

I recently joined a new church actually it will be two years in April. But it still seems new. I don't know why. We are connected with our Sunday School class. And they are awesome I wrote a post a few days ago about them. We haven't really got involved in any other way because of the ministry. I don't know if that is why it seems like it is still new or because it is just a short time compared to the lengths of times we have been in other churches. I don't know. Anyway. They have this amazing class on memorizing scripture. I have always wanted to go but the timing isn't right. They not only memorize verses but they memorize chapters. There is this awesome young lady in our church and she quotes entire chapters. Her speech is just darn pretty. The scripture just flows from her. She is young and cute and pretty and it is just a beautiful package. She is almost angelic when she is reciting.
One of the things that I put on my list of things to do in '08 is to memorize scripture. So I have been working on it. I realized last week that taking a verse a week is a good way for me. Hopefully in a few months I'll be able to add more. Maybe a weekly verse and a weekend verse. But for now one a week works. And they are one verse maybe two at a time. Not a chapter. I am not there yet. And when I say the verses it doesn't sound pretty. But they are in my heart and I remember them so that is what counts.

I chose this verse because God has really been talking to me about Joy. And so I made the pretty little photo in Coral. I am sure it looks pretty elementary but to me it is amazing. (see my label at the bottom!) Here's my verse of the week.

Psalms 28:7
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Dear Lord. I am working on having joy. I know we talked about it yesterday and this morning. Thank you for giving me many things praise you for.

Verse of the Week

Psalms 28:7
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Our hope. Our reason for joy.

Thank you Lord Jesus for being my redeemer. My source of strength. Help me to always remember I have reason for joy.

Trusting in the Lord

There are times when all we can do is trust in the Lord and know that all things work out for his good. Many times I have to do that. And I pray everyday that the decisions and choices that I make are pleasing to him. There are so many verses that speak about this truth. I thought about this verse all week.

Psalms 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Then today I read part of Psalms 28 and read this.

Psalms 28:7
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Sometimes it is really difficult for me to be joyful. I know that I should let fears or circumstances rob my of my joy. But they do. I am not necessarily sad or depressed. But I worry and I fret. And so all these things take away the joy that I should have just resting in the knowledge that I am redeemed.

Tonight I think that I will rest in my fathers arms and ask him to show me which verse that I should learn this week.

Tomorrow I will post the verse of the week.

Amazing

Amazing is all I can say about my day. I spent the entire morning and afternoon with who know how many screaming teenage girls.
They were all gathered in one place to see:
Point of Grace, Susie Shellenberger,Jaime Jamgochian,Chris Wheeler,Barlow Girl (on video)Stellar Kart and



If you read my post Thursday you probably know I had no idea who this was. Do you? I am sure that all of America knows. But I have to admit I didn't. He was gracious enough to let me take his photo even though I yelled across the lobby and called him by name and then when he didn't immediately stop yelled another name (I really wasn't sure what his name was). He then waved. Later I apologized and he did let me photograph him for one of the girls.



I have to thank White's Chapel United Methodist Church for giving us the tickets. It was an awesome treat for my girls!



I know I promised Dog and Cat stories on Sat. so I have to give you guys the next installment. I know some of you want to hear Daisy's story but I have to lead up to why her story is so important. So today I will tell you about Bear.
Here is a photo of him

I cannot tell you how amazing this dog was. He was a registered Lab and had been through obediance and retriever training. When we first got him (he was 2 1/2 past the chewing on things stage!) he was so well trained that he wouldn't get within arms reach of any piece of furniture. He quickly learned that in our house a dog is part of the family. And the couch was just as much his as ours! He was the best dog for the kids. He would come outside when I came home from getting groceries and he would help take the groceries in. He carried the toilet paper and paper towels and anything in a box. Stuff like mac and cheese,minute rice etc. He would actually get mad if I didn't let him help. He also learned to "fetch" individual Blue Bell ice cream cups out of the freezer (we opened the door)and he would take it to whoever was waiting in the den. Then when he was done eating he would take the empty container back to the kitchen and drop it in the trash compactor. He loved it when I took a bubble bath. He always tried to get in the tub and when I wouldn't let him he would sit beside the tub and try to drink the water. (yuck) We loved that dog. He would sleep between me and my husband. Not the entire night usually but at least part of the night. We never let the kids sleep in our bed. (some would think that horrible but)and some would think us horrible for laughingly saying that if we ever got divorced we would have a custody battle over the dog! LOL really. Bear was so amazing he even accepted a puppy into our lives. We got Noel for Christmas when our daughter was in 2nd grade. Bear fetched balls like crazy. And even played soccer with the kids. He tolerated Noel. When we would throw a ball he run to get it and Noel would grab his bandanna and hang on for a ride. Or bite his ear. He always let her! Noel never learned to fetch. (I just think some dogs just don't know how. I think it is the breeding.) We had Bear well beyond most Labs live. He was almost 13 when w finally put him down. Noel was raised with Bear and we all worried that it would be hard for her when we put him down. She wasn't a puppy anymore either. Our son was married then but our daughter was back home from college. Bear was awesome. Bear was amazing. We didn't think that another dog could ever replace Bear. Bear and Noel both have unique individual stories that I'll share soon. And, I'll share more photo's too next weekend.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. And thanks for patiently waiting to hear about Daisy. Her stories coming next!
Have a great weekend!

Verse of the week
Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds.
Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its works so that you may be mature and complete
not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Dog & Cat Stories Saturday

You'll have to wait a few hours to read todays story.
Because I am about to go the Girls of Grace Conference. I'll be gone all day.
I am priviledge to be able to take 10 of the girls that we work with from the halfway house. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I kept waking up and thinking about them.
I prayed that they would make it safely to the church.
I prayed that God would prepare each of the hearts last night while they slept to be open to him.
I prayed that the concert although I know it will be awesome Praise music that it would also be envanglistic.
I prayed that God would reveal himself to them individually.
I prayed that someone would receive Christ as their personal savior.

Please pray with me today for all that will attend the concert.
I'll be back later and post my story.
Have a Blessed Day, Sherry

Verse of the Week (typed from memory)
James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy you face trials of many kinds.
Because the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must complete its work so that you may be mature and complete
not lacking anything.

Show and Tell Friday

Today is Show and Tell Friday over at Kelli's House. On my sidebar is her S/T button and lower down I think (I hope)is her link. (notice my categories at the bottom of my post)
I was prompted to show this collection by a comment from my last weeks S/T. Last week I showed my cookbooks and bookcase reading area I recently put in my kitchen.
(check it out) On one of the shelves is an Elephant creamer or small pitcher. That particular item is part of a collection that I will share today. But before I share the collection let me show you how it started.

This my daughter holding an elephant that my sister gave her for her birthday. So began the saga of the elephant. At one count there were over 200 in the collection.
Don't worry I haven't posted them all only a few.

The little creamer is back with a few friends. Unfortunately I wasn't the planner back then because I didn't mark where they came from or when or who gave them to her. The bigger one on the right with the baby is a cookie jar. (unfotunately he was attacked when he was taken out of the jungle. He was sitting innocently below a shelf containing horses and a wild bronco jumped down and knocked some other things down and pour mamma elephant in attempting to save her baby kicked the bronco and hurt her foot) This cookie jar contained flower petals from the flowers that my husband gave our daughter on her birthday. (how that began will be in a Sat. animal story post soon)
The two larger elephants on the left are a tea pots.(don't know why we never had a tea party. I love all you bloggers out there that have tea parties with your little girls. You inspire me. I'll dig out the tea pots when I have a granddaughter someday)
The little blue wrinkly guy and the Dumbo's are just part of the collection and I don't really remember anything special about them. I am sure that my daughter can.
I'll see her today and she will see these items in the living room. That was my hint from yesterday. The are sitting on the dresser on the far side of the fireplace for now.
This last photo I saved because it is really my favorite of the entire group. I did not buy it for my daughter. I bought it for myself. It sits in her room on the dresser. (I don't always hang pictures. You'll see when I show you my den).



I don't know if you can tell why I like it so much. To me this looks like my daughter and one of her big friends! She was in college when I found this and just had to have it. It brought back many memories.

I hope you have enjoyed my show and tell. Don't forget to come by tomorrow and read the dog story. I promise soon I'll post Daisy's story.

Have a Happy Day. Sherry

Joy

We've been playing Scrabble and having loads of fun. At least my husband has been having fun! The man can play Scrabble. And if you believe in luck he has it. Or he knows how to cheat well. Since he has been recovering from knee surgery I have been trying to keep him from getting too bored and Scrabble has been a fun a way to entertain him when he is totally bored with t.v.

For the first time we have been watching American Idol. He has been watching Rachael Ray in the morning and then again in the afternoon. And, we have been watching Decorating Sense which is one of my favorites I love trash to treasure.

Speaking trash and treasures here is a photo of my fireplace.

I love it. The mirror is old I managed to talk my mother in law out of it. She used to buy and sell antiques and ended up with it but couldn't sell it. I am sure it is not all that old but I like it.
The metal screen in front of the fireplace I bought at my favorite little antique store. I don't know what it was originally used for but I just think it is pretty.
Sometimes I put it in front of the doorway to keep Daisy contained.




And somewhere in the fireplace photo is what I will be posting about tomorrow at Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. But I am not letting the cat out of the bag. (that isn't a hint).

I will be writing the next installment on Saturday leading up to Daisy's story. I think I have decided that Saturday will be my day to write about the animals. They are all a Joy to me and I am thankful for them. I hope you all enjoy thier stories.

Until tomorrow . . .

Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds.
Because the testing of your faith develops persverance.
Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete.
Not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Facing many trials

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds.
Because the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Sometimes do you wish that God would finish working on you? You know when things just seem to go from bad to worse. You think you are in his will. You really feel like you are but then you begin to have doubt? I guess that is when you can turn to a verse like this and realize that God is working even when we don't see any evidence.
He gives us many things to be grateful for like a blue sky. It was so beautiful yesterday. I was working outside in a t-shirt. Yea.

But with all that beautiful weather I face another trial. It is trivial in comparison to some of the other things. I face this.



Which perseveers and produces this.

(Did you notice I put in three photo's? I figured it out on Sunday when it was pouring down rain. Which caused all of this!)

And we have this lovely field and yard full of dandelions. (As I think about them I must search through my quilt patterns and show you a photo of a dandelion quilt that I will make one day. I have many others to complete first.)

It makes me realize that as much as I try to rid the yard of this pesky little weeds that it must be what God is trying to do with me. He is trying to rid me of my pesky little issues and problems. And those mistakes I make that sometimes I don't even realize. This is what I read this morning . .

Psalms 19:13 & 14 (Contemporary English Version)
Do not let me do wrong on purpose, Lord, or let sin have control over my life.
Then I will be innocent and not guilty of some terrible fault.
Let me words and my thoughts (and my actions) be pleasing to you, Lord, because you are my mighty rock and my protector.

This is my prayer today that as I perseveer through many trials that my words, my thoughts and my actions are pleasing to you Lord and that you will teach me what I need to learn.

p.s. I almost forgot. Over on the sidebar is Amy's awesome Wordfill Wednesday.
You can visit her at http://www.the160acreawood.typepad.com Thanks Amy

Project/Goal of the month

This is what I worked on this weekend. Hopefully by the end of the month it will be a little larger than twin size. My daughters birthday is March 31 so I have a little over a month. Right now it will cover the top of a twin bed so I don't have a lot to go. This is the cathedral window pattern. It is completely done by hand! Wow that is a lot of stitches! I have been working on it longer than I care to admit. I have got to get it done for this birthday!

It's hard to tell from this photo but the fabrics she chose are all horse or cowboy themed. There is rope, horses,toiled leather,barbed wire,stars. The colors are red,blue,yellow,green and brown. I think the fabrics are mostly Moda's. One of the lines is Buffalo girls (You quilters out there are probably figuring out how long I have been working on this.)

My daughter has been complaining since before she got married that I have not made her a quilt. I made my "Son in Love" a quilt for his birthday the year they got married as a special welcome to the family.

My goal for finishing it; is her birthday because they are expecting in May.

I want to make one similar for my new grandbaby. (except I'll do the main part on the machine. I found an ok machine stitched pattern) We are going to look this week for horsey theme fabric for the baby. The babys quilt I'll only make to just cover the top of the crib to go with the bedding which we haven't started yet!

I don't know if I learned, realized or remembered this weekend while I was working on this quilt that I work best or function best when I organize myself. I am not really a list writer. Understanding that about myself this weekend was a part of my journey. If I don't discipline myself I end up getting a mess of projects going and not finishing any of them.

And my goal of the month is to get back to the memorizing the verse of the week. I got off to a really bad start last week. May I use Valentines Day as my excuse?
Not a good one really but it would take way too long to write all the other reasons that kept me from the verse. Moving forward. Here's the verse of the week. (again)

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brother whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverence must finish its work so, that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

As I face trials Lord help me to remember that you are there holding me up and seeing me through. One step at a time.

My husband doesn't like cats Part One

Today I am doing this . . .

Actually these aren't my boots but aren't they totally cute. I wish I had a pair of red rain boots! But I am tromping through the rain to take care of the animals outside and when I come in this is what my boots and floor look like.

Actually no these aren't my boots either nor is this my floor. My floor is actually dirty but we can pretend right?

And this is not a photo of my cat but isn't it interesting?

I was looking for a photo of a rainbow and I saw this one and thought it was neat and well it does actually look like my cat. And I thought it would work for the story I want to tell you about our cats.

I know I promised to tell you Daisy's story but I realized that before I could tell that one I needed to set it all up with the cat's story.

In 1988 we bought our first house. The kids were in kindergarten and 2nd grade and we decided we needed animals so we got cats for them. They were really sweet kittens. Our son had a grey striped which he named Stripes (like the one in the photo) and our daughter had a solid black kitten which she named Boo because we got them around Halloween. (we are very creative in our animal names)

Our house was a two story. My husband traveled and so we got a burglar alarm with motion dectors.

We started having problems with the alarm going off when we weren't home or in the middle of the night. We found out it was because the cats would go up and down the stairs and set the motion dectors off. So we started locking the cats in the utlity room at night and while we were gone so they wouldn't roam the house.

My husband is not a cat lover. (so he says)I don't think I mentioned that the kids and I had to beg for the kittens. He is a dog person and just basically tolerated the kittens (he hates a litter box) but he is a good father and of course all kids need animals.

My husband had a habit(still does actually) of staying up late and watching t.v. The kids and I had gone to bed one evening. I went down a little later and found my husband asleep on the couch with our sons kitten Stripes. He had gone into the kitchen for a snack and the kitten was sticking his little paw out from under the door. So my husband took him out. This became his almost nightly ritual he would let the cats out for a while before he went to bed.

As I type this my husband is laying on the couch with the current cat asleep on his stomach.

My husband doesn't like cats. Does yours?

Verse of the week . . .
James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perseverence must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything."(NIV)

Show and Tell

For my show and tell this morning I am showing my two Valentines. I hope you enjoyed the Valentines Day Party here at the blog and maybe met some new people. Today meet my Valentines my husband (he's the one in tan) and my dog Daisy; (she's is the one say "grr") They are playing here.




This is one of the most recent after Daisy got a haircut. We took her this place where you can bath and cut your dog yourself. It wasn't a great haircut but cheap and boy has it cut down on the dog hair on the carpet. She had a really long pretty coat but everyone likes her better now with her short hair cut! Notice the off whiteish/tan carpet. Well I used to vacuum everyday because it had black dog hair all over it. Now I only have to vacuum every other day. We also have a black cat. What was I thinking?





This last photo is Daisy sitting "up".(sorry I am editing and noticed it isn't turned right. I'll fix it later but I have to take care of the horses first) My husband kept telling me I couldn't teach an old dog a trick. (she is 4) She sits "up" like a little dog. And has learned when company comes to sit in the living room politely till they come in and then she sits "up" and then she shakes your hand.

I will be adding more photo's of hubby and Daisy soon so please check back and see some of them and also the story of how we got Daisy.
I'll tease you with a verse that paraphrases says something close to "God hates divorce".

I hope you enjoy my show and tell today and come back over the weekend and read about Daisy's story.
Oh and don't forget to go over at visit Kelli's show and tell. Her button is in the side bar.