Thursday, October 22, 2009

the look of love

When Rebekah was young we took her to Six Flags and had her caricature done by an artist there. This is what he drew. Notice Donald in the lower left hand corner. I guess the artist could tell that he was smitten with his young daughter!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

the Colour of His Love



Does God's love have colour? Oh, yes, most definitely! Here are some examples from one life, my own.

The colour of His love is watching my daughter weep for her friend in ICU. It's brothers and sisters being friends and taking care of each other. Picture a husband cleaning the dirty bathroom for his wife while she sleeps in bed during the afternoon because she's sick. His back is hurting and he has no business bending over that tub, but he does it anyway.

The colour of His love is a daughter calling her mom at work and saying, "Don't worry about dinner. We're getting chicken." She also paid for it for the whole family. It's another daughter taking her mom out to lunch and not letting her share the bill.

More colours of His love are my son building a bridge for my backyard project and tearing down a brick wall because his mom wants the brick. Another son loads and unloads bags and bags of free rock and soil and compost that his mother isn't even sure what to do with. The colour of His love showed her exactly where to use them months later and it's perfectly perfect~!

Yet other colours are a dear friend taking time from her busy day to come check on me because she loves me, my little black kitty that simply adores me and will come to me when I call his name, and the gentle rain that washes everything clean.

The colour of His love is abundant in this note that my wonderful husband wrote seven years ago and I will keep it forever. Read slowly and picture His colours for yourself.....

Someone who paints red birds on white backgrounds,
Someone who has my numbers on their jersey,
Someone who draws me flowers on napkins,
Someone who collects pennies and likes cats,
Someone who knows me too well not to speak up,
Someone who doesn't know any better than to love me!!!

Sound like anyone you know,
Sounds like my family



Monday, September 7, 2009

good times and poison ivy

We have had such an awesome Labor Day weekend. Donald's twin brother and his daughter came in Friday afternoon. Their other brother lives here so we were able to get together with Doug and his wife. Their two sisters were in for a couple of hours also. We laughed and ate, and ate and laughed...well you pretty much get the picture. It's always so much fun to listen to Donald, Ronald, and Douglas. Each of them have their own version of how the story took place!

I only have one younger brother and when I first met Donald I was pretty much flabbergasted with all the noise and laughter and kidding and commotion. It didn't take long to get used to it though and now I love to sit around listening to their stories. It doesn't matter that they've been told and listened to numerous times. They are still just as funny as the first time I heard them. We also had a VHS of clips of movies when the kids were growing up. It's fun to listen to the commentaries on those also.

The boys went camping and the girls went to Frisco shopping and we went out to eat twice on Saturday. I cooked brisket, baked beans, buffet potatoes, and fried okra for dinner Friday night. We had coconut pie and Chocolate Delight and Lauren brought cookies, a pie, and pastries from Central Market. They were delicious along with the guacamole that she makes. It is the BEST guacamole I have ever had! I was sad to see them drive away and wish they could come more often.

Today Donald is taking me to Sherman to eat at Jalapeno Tree. I want to run by Lowe's (of course) and more than likely Sam's Club.

I got into poison ivy while cleaning the wisteria off our fence in the back yard. Of course I was wearing shorts and flip flops so it's all over my arms and legs and feet and I am going CRAZY itching and trying not to scratch. Some of the places are better and others are still breaking out and oozing and it's so gross!!!! Really gross! Of course I don't suffer in silence so my family has heard how miserable I am many times the past week. I think because I continued working in the yard all day afterward and not bathing until after 8:00 p.m. it made it much worse than it might have been. Lesson learned...the hard way!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

a picture says a thousand words


Baby Zachary at Heather's shower


Yoda in the dryer, before he became an outdoor cat


Look hard and you can see one of my hummingbirds!







I have a watermelon growing on the vine. It is mixed in with my flowers getting larger!


Cantaloupe growing also...finally.



I'm working on another area in the back yard. I found this discounted at Hobby Lobby!



My okra is way taller than I am. Now I know that's not saying much, but it's taller than the boys also!



Pretty canna from the plants Shiela gave me last year.




For some reason Bright got in the bathtub when it thundered. Do you think he's trying to tell us something?


tooooo, toooo, toooo, looking out my front door

Thursday, July 16, 2009

our Daniel













The summer is flying by. Daniel graduated on June 30th. It is official; I now only have two more years of homeschooling to go. I can honestly say I won't miss it. It has been and is wonderful and I am blessed to be able to homeschool our children. I wouldn't trade the last 24 years for anything anyone could offer me.

It's just that I have new interests now and I don't seem to have enough time to indulge in them. I am still working in our yard and the change is amazing. I absolutely love what God has provided and enabled us to do with what He's given and provided. My patio isn't finished, but I've decided I'm waiting for cooler weather. I've been harvesting vegetables from my first ever vegetable plot and it is so satisfying to eat what I've planted or set out (my tomatoes and peppers). Donald doesn't even like tomatoes, yet he's eating mine!! Of course there is no comparison between a store bought and home-grown tomato. The kids have enjoyed the okra and squash and I am loving the cucumbers. I've learned a lot with my small raised bed garden this year. Even Donald is talking about expanding our endeavor next year.

I am working part time and though it's not a lot of hours it has changed my little world drastically. I am thankful that God provided this job ahead of when I thought I would search for a part time job. I'd rather it come to me than look for it!

I love my God, my family, and my life. I'm so blessed!!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

farmer's daughter

Yoda likes to play in my work bag.My baby

Yoda likes Donald and I think Donald likes Yoda, too. ;)

my first onion crop ever!



Beautiful bloom on my okra plant



Waiting on the okra to get big enough to eat!













I am so excited about my small garden! I dug my onions this week, and although I had to put them too close together to get everything planted, I am still happy. Some are rather small, but they shall be used also.

I am going in a bit to pick cucumbers and try to find enough squash to fry for dinner. Ben loves fried squash and okra. The okra will take a while longer. I can't believe how fast these vegetables are growing. One day the cucumbers were tiny and the next almost big enough to eat! I can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen, then I can have a salad from my garden! This is a natural high for me; you can laugh if you want, but I am amazed at how this stuff grew from the tiny seeds I put into the earth a couple of months ago. God is incredible to do it this way. Maybe it's so we will see Him in it.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

after the storm














Your love surrounds me
Your love astounds me
Your love is everything

(Kari Jobe - Pure)

My heart is rejoicing with these lyrics today. They are running over and over in my head, and over again.

We had a storm last night. We knew it was raining hard and Hannah came into our bedroom and said a big limb was in the yard. Donald went to check and I stayed in our comfortable bed. This morning I realized it was a "big" limb, several of them in fact. It fell right beside our bedroom and we didn't even hear it; it fell right between our house and the street where Josiah's pickup was parked. It was like God directed it exactly where to fall so we wouldn't be damaged. There are a few leaves and sweet gum balls on the roof. Tuesday night at Celebrate Recovery Eddie asked the question, "How big is my God?" Big enough to keep us safe and tell the limbs where and how to fall!

I was out taking pictures this morning, all the while rejoicing at God's goodness and protection; our neighbor was on his way to work. He stopped and asked if we have a chainsaw and I told him no. He has one and said he will come over this afternoon after work and bring his saw! I didn't even ask God for help in cleaning it up, but I have absolutely no idea how we would have managed it.
My God is an awesome God!! Thank you, Father!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

transformation

From this..... to this........

Now I'm working on my walkway and about to go look for lumber for my bridge.




Thursday, May 28, 2009

oh yoda


We went to dinner at our friends' house the other night and I came home with this cutie! I named him Yoda because he looked like Yoda to me. His eyes were a bright green and his ears were big and his face shaped like Yoda's face. He's just six weeks old and he's mine!!


He likes my Donald also.



Wednesday, May 20, 2009

now she rests

I've done it again. I have worked and worked on our patio until I am exhausted. I am taking the rest of the week off. I have to. I can't continue without any energy. I am whiny, and tired, and not sleeping well because I am putting down brick in my dreams. I took yesterday off and stayed home last night to rest because I didn't fall asleep until after 3:30 a.m. the night before. I went to bed at 6:30 and watched TV until the Lakers beat the Nuggets. :(

I am posting some new pictures so you can see what I have accomplished. I started on our sidewalk this morning and only got about a foot. I'm not very good at using a shovel. Ben did such a great job on the part he put down. He made it look so easy, but it isn't easy at all. So I cleaned up the yard some and called it quits for this week.

I hope this link works so you can see the pictures I've taken.


http://www2.snapfish.com/launchslideshow/AlbumID=822211014/SUBSCRIBER_NAME=SNAPFISH//EntryIDX=1

Thursday, May 14, 2009

do they really expect me to believe this???

another e-mail.....

hello
this is to inform you that your funds $1.8 Million dollars due has been uploaded into corporate visa card,and it has registered it with dhl company and delivery will be shipped,A Tax/Stamp Duty must be procured according to the new customs creed and the essence ensure a hitch-free delivery and the amount is $75.usd only,contact director Mr.John Brown
E-mail:(................) tel:+(taken out since I don't want you to get my millions!) send your info to them,1 your full name 2 Your home address:telephone. Dr Peter Gibb


I do think if I was sending these I would come up with a catchier name than John Brown.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

the rest of the story

This is my newest purchase (the wagon aka/garden cart, not the brick). My heavenly Father has again abundantly provided as you will soon see. My Asian Jasmine is spreading!!!!


We actually have some green grass this year!!!

My garden is growing, okra, squash and tomatoes here...



More okra beside my onions...


Lettuce beside the onions and I'm waiting on my pepper plants to emerge...


Part of our patio project...

My wonderful fountain...


Pretty fern


My awesome glider from Connie and Eddie...
Our new hammock which I have not had time to use; maybe because I see all the brick waiting to be cleaned beside it?

It's coming along quite well considering...


Clean brick that our neighbors' gave us from their shop...


Brick from a wall around a patio that was given to us; Ben did a great job tearing it down. Daniel, Ben, and I worked almost 6 hours getting the rest of it. Jeffrey helped one afternoon also and Donald even got in on one load.