Spooky Picnik

Remember my "picnik'd" pictures? On May 22 I shared my spooky church, broken butterfly and little girl's bums. Now Ashley has come up with this:

If you didn't go play with the photo editor the first time, go play now.

It's so much fun!

**When you make something, let me know. Maybe we'll have a picnik photo gallery post!

Moment by Moment

I went to see the doctor on Monday and he said I made his morning with the good report on my health. My blood pressure has been in the normal range for a few weeks now so the meds are working. Praise the Lord! With my doctor's support I am modifying my diet and being accountable for my exercise with the intent of getting off all meds in the future. I've set a six week goal of keeping a food journal and exercising a minimum of three times a week. So now that I've told you, I'll let you know each week if I've kept my goals. They are "baby steps" on the road to healthy living, but still a challenge for me.

In the wee hours of the morning recently, Katie came to my bedside to tell me about her nightmare. It was just enough to fully wake me up. I then laid in bed for an hour stressing about the responsibilities that need to be covered this week. Ever been there? It can often be overwhelming. As you know, I believe the Lord has given me this heavy load to help me grow in grace and to know Him more, but that didn't stop the adrenaline from pumping and the mind from spinning. The Father, again, gently reminded me that I was right - I couldn't successfully accomplish His will in my life this week - only HE could. I just took a deep breath and prayed, "Yes, Lord. Thank you for reminding me." I then got up and spent time in the Word and in prayer.

I then made my "to do" list - which was too long to actually accomplish and then prioritized what had to be done. By the end of the day I did all I had to do, plus, a few more things. Was I super-woman? Could I awe any other woman with my prowess of multi-tasking? NO WAY! Did I please the Lord? I think so, because we walked through the day together. I tried to share HIS love with everyone I encountered. I'd rather be that woman any day than the raging control freak who looks good only from the outside. We know the right answer - that our goal should be to glorify God. What He thinks of us has eternal consequences. This life is a vapor so why should I be trying to strive for what the world says is successful? Chasing after a vapor? No thanks. Chasing after God? That sounds good.

Are you searching for that quiet walk with God amidst the busyness of life? Do you long for peace, guidance, and the ability to be quiet enough to hear His still small voice? There are so many women who want to find God in the middle of actually living...the laundry, meals, schooling, work, volunteering, learning...it's all so busy. Here's a post that I hope will encourage you.

Blog Make-Over

Do you all like my blog make-overs? I love the autumn and thought it might be fun to change the blog background for the season. Just wait until Christmas...there are some cute ones out there! I also love my black & white design on my cooking blog - chic, I say!

I know some of my readers have their own blogs so I thought I'd share some of the great places you can get free backgrounds for your blog. Did you really want to dig through 17, 400,000 sites yourself?! Happy Decorating!

I'll start with the site that I chose a background from:
thecutestblogontheblock.com

One that has cute, scrap-booking type pages:
http://simplychicblogs.blogspot.com/

Quirky little birdie:
http://www.giselejaquenod.com.ar/blog/blogger-templates/

Arts & Crafty looking, plus a few photo backgrounds:
http://simplyblogitbackgrounds.blogspot.com/

Fun photo backgrounds:
http://joyfulblogskins.blogspot.com/

I don't know, just unique:
http://www.shabbyblogs.com/backgrounds.html

Come to the dark side:
http://sams-scraps.blogspot.com/

Lotsa Choices:
http://that-blog-place.blogspot.com/

There's some unique backgrounds here: (keep scrolling down!)
http://myblogmakeoverbackgrounds.blogspot.com/

I stumbled upon this one: (check out the textures! & I like their slogan)
http://hotbliggityblog.com/index.php

Just like this one: (they may be my next site to borrow from)
http://www.aquapoppydesigns2.blogspot.com/

Scents and Scents-ability

This is the first scent I can ever remember wearing...does it look familiar to anyone? It's Avon's Honeysuckle Roll On. If they came out with it again today, I'd buy me a case of it! Loved it!!

I then graduated to Love's Baby Soft! What girl of the 80's didn't wear this perfume? I even bought it for my oldest daughter when she was young...love that powdery scent.

In high school I moved on to Ciara - a strong musky/vanilla perfume. I wanted to make a statement/be memorable, but it sometimes gave me a headache.

I then went through a Wind Song phase. When Walmart began carrying those faux perfume aerosol sprays I could smell good cheaply - always a plus in college.

During my sophomore year in college, one of my roommates, Kirsten, and I got very sick. We both came down with mono and pneumonia and we felt like we were gonna die. Seriously, it was traumatic. I remember using all our energy to walk down the hallway to the pay phone so we could call our mommies. I sobbed on the phone one day telling my mom that I doubted my salvation 'cause I was sure God wouldn't let one of his children suffer as much as I was suffering. Kirsten was so sick that while she slept she had me stand on a chair next to her top bunk and shake her every time she stopped breathing to wake her up. I just laid my head down by her and probably drifted in and out of sleep too.

One day a package arrived from Kirsten's mom. Enclosed was an adult sized pair of footie pajamas drenched in her mother's favorite perfume. It smelled heavenly! Kirsten's mommy was thousands of miles away, but this was her way of taking care of her daughter. It actually did wonders for both of us. The perfume...Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden.

Soon after the two of us recovered, I went out and purchased my own bottle of Blue Grass and I've worn it ever since. I can only find it at one specialty perfume store in the DC area, but somehow that makes it even more special.

I've tried a few other perfumes and every once in a while I'll wear Anais Anais or Jessica McClintock, but Blue Grass will always be my favorite. It's my signature scent.

Annual Vacation

We recently returned home from our annual vacation - a week spent each fall at an off-season ski-resort in the mountains. This was our 5th year vacationing with my parents and we all marveled at how quickly we let the stresses of life melt away. The relaxation was almost instantaneous after that first step into the familiar villa.

An annual vacation to the same destination takes away the guesswork of what to bring or what to expect. We've already tried many activities over the past five years - craft classes, tennis, mini-golf, shopping, swimming, dance classes, yoga, scuba-diving, eating out, historical tours, hiking, wine tastings, massage, billiards, ping pong, playing at playgrounds, Bingo, basketball, magic shows and poetry readings. There's always something new we add each year to our activities, but it's the conversations around the table, the games, the cozy fires & movie watching and the feeding of the deer from our deck that cement the relaxation in body and mind. It's good food, good company and good times...and only 358 days until we get to do it again.

(daily swim lessons at the pool)

(playing with Grandpa at the Frontier Culture Museum)

(relaxation is in the air!)

Father Tim's favorite quotes & mine too!

I love the Mitford series by Jan Karon. Her characters come to life and she makes me want to live a slower paced life in the mountains of North Carolina. If you have not read any of her books, please, go to the library asap and pick up At Home in Mitford, her first book in the series. You'll be glad you did.

After reading through the series, I wondered if I would enjoy the two books of Father Tim's quotes. The first of the two, Patches of Godlight, is so good...a collection of thoughtful quotes is always inspiring. For years I have kept my own small quote book, but after reading through some of Father Tim's quotes I may have to purchase a larger journal to hold all the ones I want to add to my own. Here are a few of my favorite:

We - or at least I - shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have "tasted and seen." Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are "patches of godlight" in the woods of experience."
-C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

If you read history you will find that Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set out on foot to convert the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in." Aim at earth and you will get neither. - C. S. Lewis

None can love freedom heartily but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.
- Milton

Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen

The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed.
-Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest"

The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.
-Dwight L. Moody, 1937-1899

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
- Helen Keller

Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: "Yes, Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place"?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts
and says, "Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth be born here -
in this place."
-Leslie Leyland Fields

Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only have you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.
-Francis of Assisi "Letters to Rulers of People"

Never has the world had a greater need for love than in our day. People are hungry for love. We don't have time to stop and smile at each other. We are all in such a hurry! Pray. Ask for the necessary grace. Pray to be able to understand how much Jesus loved us, that you can love others. - Mother Teresa

Cultivate my heart, Lord, so I may catch every word that falls from heaven - every syllable of encouragement, every sentence of rebuke, every paragraph of instruction, every page of warning. Help me to catch these words as the soft, fertile soil catches seeds. - Ken Gire

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage and determination. - H. Jackson Browne

There are three stages in the work of God: impossible, difficult, done. - James Hudson Taylor, English Missionary

Performance Review Complete!

Writing this post is my reward for getting my performance review for work completed! Let's do a little happy dance together!

I have not been employed for over 10 years and I've never had to fill out a performance review. When I saw the emails circulating at work re: the reviews I thought I would have to fill out a 90 day questionnaire and not have to fill out the ominous review. On Tuesday my supervisor let me know that I had been hired two weeks earlier than the 90 day deadline and that I did indeed have to fill out the review. I cried...really. Not on the phone with her. I waited until I got in the car and called my husband. BTW, rush hour and crying to your husband don't mix well. I didn't get in any accidents, but I probably didn't make any friends on the road either.

I then got to my parent's house to pick up my girls and proceeded to cry to my Mom...then a few minutes later to my Dad. After three good cries I was ready to drive home dry-eyed. :)

For four days I have been dreading that document. I have so many responsibilities over the next four days and I just felt overwhelmed. Mark suggested writing the review and trying to get it done today so Saturday I could focus, stress-free, on the other things I had to do. I left the girls with Mark and took Rhett to piano at 1:30pm. I sat in the car for a half hour and made some headway on my writing. By the time Rhett came out of his lesson I felt empowered and ready to conquer. We ran a few errands and then came home.

When I walked in the door Mark asked how it had gone and I said, "Good. The complete silence really let me think and I got a lot done." We then discussed whether I could go to a coffee shop or the library to write some more. I said they would be too distracting. Mark suggested going back out and sitting in the car...in our parking space right in front of our townhouse. I thought that was a great AND crazy idea, grabbed my water and a candy bar (consolation) and went and sat in my car until 6:40pm, when I was finally done with the whole thing! Yay!

I then came in, watched the Food Network while Mark heated up leftovers (gotta love that guy!) and we ate dinner. After dinner I typed and edited and NOW I'm finally done. It's all been sent off to my manager and I don't have to give it any more thought!

I will sleep good tonight!

Missed Me?

Have you missed me? I know I've missed sharing with you!

So much has been happening these past few weeks. I wish I could sit with you for an hour and chat, but it is very late and my body needs rest.

The Lord is teaching me to walk moment by moment - with doctors, teenagers, co-workers, volunteers, friends, and especially with Him. I cry for "help" a few times every day! That's where He wants us, you know.

I will never get it all "right," but I am enjoying His sweet fellowship and I'm blessed by how creative He uses a willing vessel. I'm learning to walk straight into fear and to not let it grip me. We're working on the "don't be afraid" part. :)

My little girls are counting down the days until we go on vacation for a week in the mountains. I can honestly say, I've never anticipated a vacation as much as I do this year. I am looking forward to the respite. I hope to get some quiet time to reflect on what the Father has taught me in the past few months and to think about how I can learn to hear His voice and follow in greater obedience.

Life is overflowing and full with homeschooling, family, work, American Heritage girls, health, and my co-op choirs. I am being stretched beyond what I imagined. In some ways it's invigorating; in other ways exhausting. I am somehow enjoying the growth and finding that I can rest in Him amidst the moments of utter chaos.

Your prayers are always welcome. I pray for many of you who read my blog.

Just wanted to let you know I was still alive and kickin! I'll try to be back soon to share in greater detail. Thanks for sticking with me!

Listening

Cultivate my heart, Lord, so I may catch every word that falls from heaven - every syllable of encouragement, every sentence of rebuke, every paragraph of instruction, every page of warning. Help me to catch these words as the soft, fertile soil catches seeds. - Ken Gire

California Fires

Yesterday I received this picture from my mother-in-law.

She wrote:

Hi everyone, We are in Lancaster this week for the Orientation week at the college. The sky is darkened with the smoke from the fires burning in the Los Angeles mtns. Please pray for the safety of those threatened by the fires & the fire fighters. Please pray for students traveling this weekend & the next day or two to begin college here also. Please pray for all of the the staff & those of us who are part-timers who are here this week to help with the whole orientation process. A good number of students have arrived already, and there is a spirit of anticipation as they look forward to beginning their college studies. The services were great all day today.

Can you imagine sending your child off to school or starting classes with the sky looking so ominous? When I saw this picture I thought the Lord could really use these events ( the fires) for spiritual change in someone's life. Will you join me in praying for that? Of course, I ask that you pray for the safety of those affected by the fires too. As soon as I hear an update, I'll let you know. Thanks, everyone!