Friday, January 31, 2014

Jesus loves me....... most children have heard this and believe it.... why don't adults?

One of the first things I learned at MLEA, which is Montana Law Enforcement Academy, was that the first thing you teach a new dispatcher is the most basic procedure.  Nothing new in that I suppose but the truth of it is undeniable.  You teach some one the most important and most basic things you want them to know, first.  As a dispatcher I learned first and for most it to know where your officer is, you are his contact to safety in all procedures.  If  you don't know where your officer is you are NOT doing your job.  There are other basics you learn as a dispatcher and I am not going into them further because they are not my point.  The point is you teach someone the most important thing you want them to know first. Those of us who have wood stoves teacher out babies long before they are able to crawl or walk that the stove is HOT and it will burn them.  We teach our children to pick up the toys so no one falls down and gets hurt.  We teach our babies how to call out for safety to Momma and Dada,  that little voice is like an alarm going off to a new mother.  Yes, we like to hear our child say our name but put a little whimper or whine to it and we are a mother on fire to find our baby and fix it, or hurt anyone or anything that is upsetting them.  Did I say the baby trains the Momma, well maybe not really but sometimes it sure seems that way.  Funny we have to teach adults to trust us but that baby is born knowing to trust it's momma and soon after it's daddy.  The faith of a Child in real terms I would say.

We as parents teach them most things but some things they just come knowing, and one of them is God.  The faith of a child is truly unattainable as an adult, we can strive toward it but we always let something stand in our way between us and God, we want to be as a child but never quite obtain that kind of faith, I think the Bible tells us we really can't.  Maybe babies know it more than us because they have after all just left God's side.  Did you ever hear a child sing Jesus loves me?  You can see in their singing they know that it is true beyond any doubt just like they know that Momma or Daddy loves them.  Theydon't have an inkling of there being any way that it is not possible.  Oh, if only we as adults could believe God that way, the way a child does.  We all want to believe it, we know we are supposed to believe it, it says so in the Bible, but if we had the faith of a mustard seed we would know to the bottom of our soul he does...... But, and there in lies the doubt, oh, to not know that but.....

Really think about how hard it is to believe that a Deity as God is, more massive and big enough to hold the universe in his hand loves me?  Yes, we know he does, but do we ever really know it in our soul the way the a child does?  Do we backslide and think oh, maybe we were wrong, maybe he remembers this or that about me, maybe I am not good enough, maybe I did or said, or, or, or.... And that is why we adults never quite gets to that true faith of a child. WE never get it, God, Jesus, the Creator, the one and only God of all, who created every thing that is was or ever will be loves me.  God loves me not because of anything I am, ever did, ever will do, he loves me.  He loves me today the way he has always loved me and will always love me.  There is nothing I can do to make him love me less or love me more, but the adult, the human, the intelligence, the wisdom in me says really?  and I fail to believe what any suckling baby knows in his nondeveloped little brain, that God loves him, today, tomorrow and forever.  Do you know that God loves you.  Yes, he does and he is calling you today to come to him. ...... tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Dolls they have such an interesting life......

Did you ever think about the life of a Doll?  Probably not I am not clueless.  I often think of things that matter not to most people.  I can remember my first dolls, they were my siblings.  I think I mostly remember the birth of my sister, Sister.  My mom had told us that we were getting a baby, she had thought that Red was going to be a sister but he was a surprise and came into this world not as a girl.  Family tradition had had it that the "Whites, my maiden name" didn't have more than two sons to a father, since my brother Silver had had a twin brother that had died no one thought Red would be a boy but he was, so they were thinking we would get a girl but all agreed only God would know, no, no sonograms back in those days don't you know.  You got what God sent you and you liked it!!  I digress,  Sister was to be my sissy, and she is and always has been.  I got her and did get to change her diapers at the age of three and a half.  I loved her and really had had no interest in dollyes before her, after all their counterparts or maybe they are just images of hmmmm? made lots of loud noises, you know babies.  I had gotten those at 14 months and 22 months, so I think maybe Sister was the first one I may have appreciated getting, after all the others just took away mom's attention. I do know I appreciated Sister because I wanted and got a baby doll of my own for my 4th birthday.  She was a black baby,  I soon after got a jointed Quipy baby, the boys tore her legs off and I cried and cried for her but Daddy could not make her go back together, she was much like a Humpty Dumpty.  I learned then that maybe real babies were better after all they didn't come apart and always like when you played with them.  They pulled hair, stunk to high heaven sometimes, but always were glad to see you and loved you for you.

I remember when Sister was really little she had a fuzzy little doll that she rolled fuzz balls off of, she rolled them incessantly in her fingers for hours on end.  She wore than one of those doll out and sometimes it was hard for Momma to find her a replacement which usually wasn't all the welcome when she first arrived.  Sister loved her babies much more than me, but I am not sure as a small child Sister was all that welcoming to the next child under her, she did like mom's undivided attention, and when Momma's Momma died Sister may have been the reason Momma got out of bed for a lot of years. Sister did help Momma want to go on, maybe in some ways the rest of us too, but not in a way you could tell like with Sister, and to a great extent Red.

Little Brother got a dolly when he was about 4 of 5, he got a regular Quipiy doll, I loved that doll and so wanted it that I would steal it from him.  It was not cuddly, or anything like that, but it was so cute to my 10 year old heart.  Mom made Sister a doll for Christmas that year that was handmade with the most beautiful embroidered face.  I think mom would have made me one but I love dolls in a way that I don't think mom ever understood.  I didn't carrying them around, I don't think I had the time, I had to be of help and playing with dolls wasn't on the list. Mom always called me a tom boy, but I am not sure I was ever really one in my secret heart, I was just bald and not ones idea of a girlie girl as a small child so maybe I just acclimated to what I was thought to be.  I am not sure Sister ever loved that doll like I did because she liked a different style doll.  I do so love hand made dolls, I made all of my sibling, my kids and my nieces and nephews one each one year in my twenties, I hadn't thought to make Little Brother one, after all he was 18, I didn't think we would want one but I ended up spending a good deal of the time from Christmas to New Years that year making him one, but I digress.  I made my Goofy a set of Raggedy Ann and Andy's for her second Christmas, she never liked them any more than the collection of dolls that I add a new one to every Christmas until, in my stupidity realized she never wanted them.  Some of them ones I had stitched special hand made clothes for, and once brained tan a deer hide for the leather to make the bride dress for a 1950's native american doll I had found with delight just for her.  Some kids just don't like dolls.

My Bug had a doll that we got him when he was two for his Christmas gift, he was a My Buddy doll and he was loved.  Bug did everything with him, the sun rose and set in that doll.  If Bug was in trouble I would just make Buddy sleep in my room for the night, it was a much more effective punishment than anything else when it came to disciplining Bug. Yogie had a doll when she was 4 that was a Dil doll, I don't even really know anything about it's character on some cartoom, someone gave us one used and Yogie loved that doll.  She was almost 5 when we moved into the house we live in now, she had had Dil playing with him and had forgotten him outside.  She remembered him just at bed time, she cried and cried, Poppie was outside with a flash light desperately trying to find Dil for her as nothing but Dil would do to console her.  She has since out grown Dil and has passed him on to her cousin who also, for some unknown reason loved him too, but she still wants a baby doll every year for Christmas, and she has a whole "crib" full of loved dolls.  She still will carry one around every once in awhile talking to it and caring for it like it has feelings and knows her every touch and whisper.

So why does one child love a doll and one not?  Why does one child have a whole mess of dolls with love wore into them, you know, no hair because the child combed it so much not one stranded is left, no not like when your brother cut Barbies hair off.  NO, like when a child can't live with out the comfort of holding a little clone of a really baby in it's arm with all the love that any mother ever mustard for her child.  They have ripe clothes and a lost sock, sometime pen marks or marker marks on them where some all important surgery had to be preformed to save their live, or stitches where mom had to stitch on a doll leg so that her child could go to sleep with her doll under her arm next to her little heart?  My mother always told me of the dolls she kept on her bed at night until she was in high school, they each had to be just so, Booboo does that too but rarely plays with even one of them. Yogies are loved to death and show the tatter and wear of years of play. My Mom tells a story of when she was 4 and had gotten a doll for Christmas.  Her dad was a disciplinarian you did what he said when he said it.  She was told to pick up her doll or he would burn it, she didn't and he did.  She still mourns that doll of her childhood.  So why does one child live for her doll and the other could live for ever without one?  Is is new to our culture or has it always been thus?  Does a child that loves her baby dolls make a better mother, or is he a better father? I know of old that some men wouldn't allow their sons to play with doll, they didn't want them to be sissy's.  Could it be that it would have made them more loving daddy's?  I so wonder on the questions and answers of dolls.....I know that there is nothing sadder than a pristine doll on a shelf to me.  A doll is made to be loved, played with and treasured.  Even if only a little.....

 I pray that you know that the Lord God loves you, yes, you, he sent his one and only son to die on a cross just for you.  You are the lost sheep that he seeks and he will leave all his other sheep to look for you.  He loves you.  Did you know that is one of the hardest things for a person to wrap their heads around that a God or Deity so supreme would take the time to love me.  Yes, me, and you, one pathetic insignificant human being among all of the billions of others now, and in the past, he loves me because I am me.  God loves you and wants, and waits for you to come to him, do it today, tomorrow may not come and you may not get another chance to accept God's love.... tomorrow.  

Monday, January 27, 2014

Been trying for days to get truly sick, so today I am, but yesterday we had baby Goats.....

Booboo was sick on Friday and Poppie has had an on going cough and congestion for a month plus.  I was blessed to be semi immune for so long. Saturday I was getting the razors in my throat but went to BBFC and yesterday it was apparent that I was going to be sick but I did make it to Church.  Today I am sick and miserable, congestion, sore ears, raw throat and horrible cough.... Say la fee....

We were on our way out the door yesterday to go to Church and Poppie looked over to the barn and saw a baby goat, no make that two babies goats.  We all went over really quick to see them.  There were two lovely sturdy babies laying near Jewels.  One red with while marking on it's feet and the other dark read with a white marking on it's tummy, we were running behind and had no time to admire them more or even find out what they were, boy or girl...  We went to Church there were lots of sick people there so didn't feel to bad about going.  Yogie bragged about the babies at praise or discipline from God sharing time.  We were soon home and the girls couldn't wait to get a hold of the babies.  They were both girls. They decided to name them Jezebel and Judith from the Bible, their mom's name started with a J and we always name after the mothers first name. (Mokie whined later about Judith's name because the baby looked so much like her goat that died that was the grandma to these babies so Yogie changed the name to Jasmine) Yogie noticed that Gladys looked like she would be having her baby soon.  Poppie and I went in to the house the girls stayed out to take pictures and play with the babies.  Jewels followed them around as they each carried a baby goat around baby style.  They finally got cold and came in the house.  We had dinner and later when Poppie went out to check sure enough Gladys had had a baby boy, we named him Gandolph.   The girls played with the babies again and all were running and playing as "kids" will.   I hope you have a great day and the Lord blesses you and your life.... here are a few share photos.... tomorrow.





Thursday, January 23, 2014

Do you want to know or is it easier to be in the dark??

I am the kind of mom that has almost to a single situation never talked baby talk to a baby or a toddler.  I have always talked to them in a reasonable manner for their age.  I talk in a playful way to a baby but no you have never heard gibberish from my mouth.  I try, and I say try because their are some days when whining wins over common sense and I get frustrated but again I say try, to talk to a toddler in a patient voice no cute shortened forms of real words.  I don't talk to my dogs that way either they are after all the age of most toddler, but I digress.  I talk to my kids in language, and for the most part, my kids have always spoken clearly and from a young age.  Bubbles is a prime example she is two and can say "Nannie, that baby is whining"  and I must add barely two.  NO, I am not a coddler but most children are and have always been drawn to me.  I find it to be in the rarity that a baby or small child doesn't come right up to me and talk or let me cuddle them.  My grandfather used to say that some people get a second helping of mothering and as much as I once would have said "not me" I think like my Mom and my Grandma Gladys I surely was blessed with it.  I find of late I have spent a little to much time with my three littles of Mokies and will be getting a much needed break from being there daycare and get to be just their Nannie.  Blessed be the Lord.

I was, to go along with being a not coddler, a mother who had not one pair of rose colored glasses.  I would much rather know what my child was doing, was capable or what they had done than put my head in the sand.  That meant that I had an agreement with them that the punishment was much less or nonexistent if I heard it from them first. (Example Bug always ran home to tell on himself because the bus would be bringing his sister who would surely tell on him) To that end I have friends who still think what their child was an angel and got all growed up and never, not even once did something bad. I do believe I could have sold them the Brooklyn Bridge when it came to the reality of their "special good" child.  I would never tell for the world what I know about their child, 1) because it is not my place at this time, 2) their kids are pretty good kids now and 3) it should be long forgotten.  I have no delusions about almost anything that my kids have done and believe me some of it you would not believe or maybe some of you would.  I have probably had a long conversation with them about it, I am not proud of it or happy but I love my children.  I have not for a moment forgotten what my child was capable of in their past but I try to help them be better people and know not one of us can change the past.  I now come to a  quandary do I tell when I know something horrible is going on in one of my friend kids life or not? I think I have always had this question in my mind.  I always kind of based it off of my read of my friend.  If my friend is someone who can first of all endure the problem, believe their child capable of it and would actually rather know than not I tell them, if not I don't, IE the friends who still have no comprehension of their child not being perfection.  I have more than one of those by the way, the good thing is in most cases the child is a pretty good adult.

I therefore contemplate for my friend the pain to be endure in the future.  Do I tell while a difference is possible? or do I look the other way and say it is none of my business.  Do I tell my friend who can make a difference if they but knew, maybe they deserve the chance to try?  I think will this hurt our friendship? one if I do or two more if I don't?  There are so many questions with such different answer and out comes, or consequences.  But alas is this child help able and if I don't help am I part of the problem? Is it worth my friend possible anger?  Do I love my friend and my friend's child enough to loses them if I fail? I could surely lose the friendship if I don't tell and the friend finds out I knew? Do I do the right thing???? I pray for God to give me the answer and the strength to accept the results?  I pray that God can intervene and is it possible that I am that intervention so that mom and dad can help their child while there is time?  Pray for me to know and pray for my friends child to make the right new choices and remember God is the most important of those choices in all of our lives..... tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Canning tomatoes today, finished Cubbie's rug..... new rugs to start.

I spent the last four days hunting down, cutting up and braiding all or most all of the wool's I had in my house.  I do so love to make toddles upcycled items but I was not all that good at selling them.  Bubbles has benefited immensely from my failure to sell the clothes.  Most of them are her size and she loves the woolly leggings.  I have to put elastic in some of the ones I had not finished but she is loving the warmth.  She wears some of the dress and most of the shirts.  I have a few truly boy ones that I am going to give to Eighth.  Mokie hated them when I made them but for some reason likes them on Bubbles.  I now have three giant braid balls one in reds, one in green/blues, and one in purples.  I have taken all the photos and will be blogging in the next few days on "braided rugs, how I did it. "  I actually finished my big one that I was making to put in my front room or under the table.  I in the end opted for under the table.  Cubbie is looking forward to having it to lay on, it will be a little harder for her to lay on under the table but with Cubbie all things are possible.  It is 38"x 63" so a nice big size.  I am going to start making up 2'x3' for the farmers market and the Spring Fling, I may even decide to do the Flea Market this year if I get enough made.  I am building up my soap supplies as well.  Mokie wants to make goat lotions so I will help her develop a mixture we like.  If I do the Flea Market she will have to commit to doing it on Sunday for us.

I have been gathering all the old single sheets I have, and I have a pile to cut up for the cotton ones.  I think I will cut up all the abundance of cotton yardage I was gifted from my Sister In Law several years ago.  I think on some of the sheets I may do some tye dying before I cut them as a different effect.  I also have a pile of jeans that will end up being jean braided rugs, did I say that I was a pack rat?  Well it does allow for me to start this project without a lot of up front moneys.  The wool in the end is the most expensive to come by and since so many upcyclers use it it is pricey if you don't know where to find it. I hope that I can sell some if for no other reason than to purpose all of the materials I have that are just sitting and being lazy.

I have tomatoes to can today.  Poppie did not harvest any goats, much to my and Yogies dismay, her because she really wants to use that new 22 she got for Christmas and me because I did not want to make canned tomatoes but bbqued goat, say la vee... (sp)   He did compromise and end up working on my hutch and it is truly beautiful and will be in place in a few days.  More painting and reassembling to do before it is up and usable.  I did, to his dismay (fair is fair when it come to dismays I would say) get some photos to show how he did it, to be highlighted in another up coming blog, I am still trying to make my blog more visual but I forget and then don't have photos so am trying to improve.

I pray for all I know, all who follow my meandering blogs and for those who got here accidentally.  I do so hope that you will seek the Lord in you life, if he is not already living in your life.  I pray that the spirit of the Lord moves you and you seek his salvation.  I pray that the Gospel touches you in a way that it never has before.  Today is glorious it could be the day of your salvation, for the rest of us it is Glorious for just having Jesus's hand in it.... tomorrow.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The past should it stay there in the past, be lanced or thrown into the sea?....... I wonder?

It is funny (you know ironic) how things happen in your life.  Some called it coincidence. I'd like to call your attention to the fact that I don't think that there are any coincidences in God.  He knows at all times what he is doing and brings certain things to your attention when he is ready or he thinks that you are ready.  Today on Dr. Charles Stanley his message was talking about things in your past and how the Holy Spirit brings them up again and again in your life until you have resolved them and they are no longer stumbling blocks in  you life.  Well, that is what his message said to me, anyway, maybe it said something different to all others listening to his message.  I think the best part of any preaching or message is not what the speaker decided to tell you but that through the speaker God tells you what he wants to tell you or you need to hear to get you back on the path good or bad.  Any way when I heard it all I could think of is all the hours of my life where I have watched, first my father and then my dear Poppie, devote to tilling the soil in their gardens, pulling weeds and throwing rocks out that their work brings to the surface.  I like best when my dad would throw his rocks over the fence into Poppies garden as a joke, Poppie didn't think it was all that funny.  The message made me think of how the Holy Spirit churns the soil of our lives over and over until the rock that is doing damage to our soul comes to the top of the soil and it can be permanently thrown over the fence.  I am an artist so I tend to see the messages that come to me with a painters eye and I couldn't not see the sun setting on the two men who have meant the most in my life toiling away in love in their gardens.  I imagined in that moment how God toils at each or our soils gardens ever watering, ever weeding, tilling over and over and throw all the rocks away as they make their way up and out of our souls never to be seen again........

I went to Church this morning and to no surprise the Preacher was speaking about the things in our past he said that we should never bring them up in our lives we should not think of them.  I am not sure that that is the same message as the one I had heard from DR Charles Stanley but I listened to see where he was going.  He said we should only dwell on the wonderful words of our lives and the past wonderful words of our lives.  He said be should throw the bad stuff in to the sea never to be seen or heard from again.  I then did hear the message that God was giving me.  The Preacher had not said in so many words that we should lance the bad things in our lives so it no longer hurts but he did say to throw it away.  I am thinking that you can't throw something away until it can no longer be attached to your souls so you would have to detach from it to truly throw it in to the sea.  In the end they really wore talking in a slightly different manner about the same thing.  The Holy Spirit doesn't want us forever hashing out and reliving the bad that once was in our lives, and don't kid yourself we all have bad things in our past, things we are not proud of, ashamed of and cringe at the the thought that that was us back then.  The Holy Spirit helps us bring it up, deal with it, as best we can, and then helps us let it go, it can be like a rock going over a fence or a past deed settling to the depths of the sea but either way it is something we can not change being throw out of the realm of our future.   God wants us to become a beautiful garden of his making in the image of his son.  He wants us to become the perfection that he intended us to be when he first blew life in to the first man and without him stir and tilling our souls to perfection we have no ability to become the image of Christ Jesus.  God can do so much with so little in our lives.  He sees us only threw the blood of Jesus, and how glorious that is, if we can just let God mold us, change us and in the end harvest us, his well tended fruit....... tomorrow.

Friday, January 17, 2014

The day outside is beautiful, Littles with happy faces and smiles on their faces.

It has been a totally beautiful week, I must admit I haven't gotten anytime to enjoy it but the Littles did get to go out yesterday and the joy on their little faces as they went out to play was priceless.  Poppie snuck out to check on them and thought he couldn't find them.  He looked a little closer and they were under the play set having a conversation at the little picnic table.  They were out over an hour before the even nice day of mid winter made them cold.  It is gloriously beautiful out my window, the sun shining is making it look warmer than the proposed high of 45 truly is.  My goats are enjoying the lovely weather and several of the Lady Goaties are getting ready to have their babies before long, I hope they take advantage of the nice weather and don't wait until later, usually this type of "spring" in mid winter brings below zero weather in February.  I pray not and I pray the goats are all new momma's before then.  The ladies all look especially fat and sassy, it bodes well for lots of kids.  We really are going to get the harvesting done this weekend.  Yogie is very excited. I hope to get lots of full jars of bbqued goat and maybe some sausage.  My tomatoes came out great my first red lids, all Tattlers, lovely and sealed in my pantry.  I have the other case plus of tomatoes ripening up good for the harvest and bbqued goat they will season and make yummy.  I have collected almost all of the 4Ever Recap seals, I need to get the ones from Lady and get them shipped for replacements.  I will have less than a hundred left and I know I can use them for all sorts of storage.  I made lovely kefir cream cheese yesterday.  It is very tasty, going to add herbs and goodness to it and make dip and see how it goes with the family..... updates to come.  I do have more kefir made up this morning so will be making refrigerator oatmeal today, a whole weeks worth.  Thanks to Lady Hero for giving me some grains, I always tend to lose mine with the heat in the summer and then the drying of my goats in the fall.  She is my hero, in more ways than one.

Off to instruct the proper way to play "ashes, ashes", to adults known as ring around the rosies.  It is funny to hear a newly two year old sing all the words right, at the same time she is spinning into dizziness.  I pray that you family is the most important thing in your life, next to God.  I pray God is in your life.  If not his offer is always open.  He is calling and awaiting your answer to his call for salvation, today is the day, asked him for forgiveness and give your heart to him, he is listening and loves us all... tomorrow.      

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Busy with nothing to show for it...... the story of my life.

I read a statement this morning on Facebook about housewife's
  1. Photo: Anyone else "have" this?
I thought it described my adult life with a lot of accuracy.  Really as a wife and mother, of small children or big ones for that matter, do you ever accomplish in a timely manner anything you have ever started without getting side tracked?  Is there ever anything to show for all the work you did or is it more like you are trying to defend what you did do?  I know I am busy but when I look I can't see where it all went.....

This week has been the same old same old in regard to the above.  I start the week with good intentions and a list of things I really need to do, get done and people I need to spend time with or at least touch base with; but alas I get to the end of the week and look back, knowing I did not accomplish most of the list but things I never even thought of adding to the list are all accomplished but no one other than me can see that.  huuuuuh...

I did get to spend time in Bible study, which I try to do but don't always get to do.  I didn't get to go to CAKLS but wanted to, I didn't get to go to Church on Tuesday, I didn't get to go to Yogie's first game, but I did get to spend time with my niece that I don't get to spend time with.  I didn't get to go on that walk with the Ladies, but did can tomatoes, made kefir cheese, new soap and am making  great progress on my rug.  I didn't find the box of wool I put up, so I would remember where it was, but found two boxes I didn't remember having and a whole box of knitting wool that finding was a shear blessing.  

Poppie has hurt his ankle but knows not how, so he has slowed down enough to paint and putting my hutch top and says with any luck it will be up and working in a couple days, yay.  I think in the end what I am saying is it is not the plans you make and the journey you intend to take that matters but the journey God guided you to make that is the most important.  We as humans think we are the master of our lives and in the end we serve at the will of God, even if we do not know it or realize it.  

Today I am cutting up wool as I have almost gotten all of my braids sewed on, thank the Lord for all of the wool I have found and let him lead me to the wool I saved in that special, currently unknown, safe space. This weekend we plan to harvest 3 goats, Yogie can't wait to used her new 22, and get her hands to gutting.  Poppie is not as excited as she is but hopefully I have three carcasses to make into canned barbecued goat, I have saved on box of tomatoes and have lots of lazy jars that can't wait to be of use again.

 I pray that the Master of all in guiding your life.  I pray that you learn how much more your life can be in the hands of God, and you surrender all to his love and guidance.  Accept your salvation and know that true love of God... tomorrow.  

Monday, January 13, 2014

Do you ever just wonder? and dare to believe it....

I am rereading  First Corinthians by M R DeHaan.  I always find it funny (you know ironic, perplexing for those who think funny only means rolling on the floor laughing) that when you reread a book you always see something new that you didn't even notice before.  That is why the Bible is so wonderful, and fulfilling, God's Word was all to all men who read it and seek, he put all of it there and we just have to keep reading to find what he wants to tell us, but I digress.  Anyway.  I am reading First Corinthians and this time a whole new meaning is coming out in it.  Not that it wasn't there the first time but the first time I was under different stresses and needs so different parts of it talked to me.  I always read the real book of the Bible as reference when reading anyones thoughts on specific parts of the Bible.

Most of you know Paul is admonishing the Church of Corinth in Corinthians but really he is admonishing Churches and people of today and into perpetuity.  Did you ever really think on what it means that God made it all and all of it (meaning our whole existence) is of God.  Really,   you/we we're know in our minutest form to God long before we or the world was ever born.  Time is only for humans, God has no need for time so it only exists for us.  Does God see our whole life and the processes of all life of this creation in one long running movie of sorts?  Does he see all in one second?Do we exist always in ever second in his sight for always?  Does he see me and all I do and have done always?  He knows the hairs of my head, the number of cells in my body, think of that, I know we as humans can't imagine any of these things so how do we really get God? We can't.  Bottom line is we don't, we aren't supposed to, we are just to believe.  He knew all of what we would do, be and decide before he ever put breath into us.  He knows who he created to believe on him and who wouldn't not, and not because he created us not to but he could see what we would do.  That is almost unreasonable to imagine and yet we of faith believe it and those who "don't get it" never will.  Faith is as mysterious as God.  WE are nothing of our own creation or ability.  God gave me every talent I would have, every thing I would accomplish and everything I would be as he breathed life into me.  I am the result of God's doing and giving to me.  He allows me to make my own decisions, but I have never and will never, accomplish anything he didn't already gift to me.  That is a hard thing to come to terms with, that I, in and of myself, am only smart because God gave that to me, he made me an artist, he made me a fast self learner, he gave me an ego, that I could do with out, that get's me in trouble but he gave me all that I am.  I know not why he gave me this and he gave the next person so much differently, only God knows and can say why.  He also gave me free will to accept all that he has given me, and wants me to have, and he even knows how I will use that free will and he knew that before he ever created the heavens and the earth.  Think how precious that makes me to God.  Yes, me and you, we are precious to God and though we be as many as the sands of time he knows more about each of us than we will ever know about ourselves.  If that doesn't make you realize that God loves you, and cares about you, I know not of what will.  Yes, God loves us beyond reason and has never lied to us.  He even became man, his son, and came to earth to save us, by dying for us, from his own decreed punishment, and if that is not love unimaginable I don't know what is.  Yes, the God of all loves you and me and he wants us to live in eternity with him, no longer subject to time.  He has given us all and all we have to do to receive all he has for us is to accept him and believe him, how wondrous and divine.  God alone could do that....  believe, and accept, nothing else on earth is more important than loving the one that first, and has always, loved you... tomorrow.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

First BBFC of the year here..... Wondrous Volunteers, you really are the best.

We got to have our first BBFC pickup of the year.  We were all so glad to have it back, we only had one in both November and December.  We had gotten down to as few as 20 baskets but we were up to 31 this week.  I hope that we keep picking up as it goes along this year, we love our BBFC and would not want to loose it from lack of participation.  If you have never participated you really should try it and find out what it is all about.  We had marvelous baskets this week, we had yellow squash, spaghetti squash, apples, grape tomatoes, pears, bananas, onions, red bell peppers, grapes, romaine lettuce, mangoes, broccoli, a truly full nice basket.  I also got extra's of Roma tomatoes and tangelos,  the tomatoes have to ripen a little but that gives me a little time before I have to get them in the jars.  I must say we had great volunteers, and without them the whole Co-op would not work so kudos to all the volunteers in all the participating states. I know that the bottom line is I get super produce at the most reasonable amount I could get in my area.  And did I mention you can get breads, EVOO, virgin coconut oil, beans and many many other random extras, always different and always fun.

Today it is raining, got a call first thing this morning Mokie called to tell us the hill, the big hill, was really exceptionally slick. She struggled to go down it in her 4x4 but made it safely but was warning us. I had Poppie drive us down and it was extra, slick how it only gets once in a great while, water runing down the face of the glare ice.  We took it carefull and he got us down and then he called the neighbors.  Shinny, Teenager and Hewey (he reminds me of Donalds nephew following Teenager around) with Poppie sanded the hill, for the benefit of all on the hill.  It was nice and sanded when I got back from BBFC so kudos to all that give to the neighborhood in a positive way, I am truly blessed with some really fine neighbors who go out of their way to be a blessing. I pray that you have neighbors that care for you.  I pray for the blessings that the Lord sends you to be many and your faith to be strengthened for having them.  I pray that you are saved, have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have accepted his free gift.  I hope that you can share it with any and all that you meet along the paths of your life.... tomorrow.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Today I am just thankful.....

I found out yesterday a friend of mine lost her baby.  She was 8 and half months pregnant.  I can not even imagine the pain she must be in right now.  I know she is a strong person and I now know she must be stronger than me because God does not give you trials that you can not overcome with his help.  I am not sure I am strong enough to lose a child and survive.  I don't mean I would die but I do know that I would struggle with something in me dying.  I know that when my mom lost her baby something in her died that she never got back.  She has spent a great deal of her life looking backwards and making choices to return to the time when she had not lost a baby.  I am not sure she is the person she once was, she also lost her parents shortly after and I think the two combined tragedies combined to change her permanently.  She is in many ways a wonderful person but not the same person God meant her to be.

I have been reading a book called "Where is God when it hurts?"  by Phillip Yancey.  It is a wonderful book, it gives great insight in to pain, suffering and the changes it makes in a person life.  He gives poignant examples of people who suffered great loss in their lives and either were crushed or became better people.  It speaks of Job a lot and gives provoking thoughts on God's relationship with Job that I had never thought of before.  He tells of people who survived the death camps of WWII, some came out with out God though they had gone in with him, along the way they lost him.  Statistics show that 5 percent of the atheists that survived found God.  One story,used by a survivor, that he used to explain his disbelief in God confirmed another man's belief.  It is wondrous how people who suffer and survive are changed, sometimes so differently.  Some become lost, other become great, some become retched and others find the divine.  NO one survives and is the same, pain and suffering are the fires the tinsel us.  The fear of suffering leads us to the fear of God that is trust.  I haven't finished the book, and believe me it is a "non-putterdowner"  and I have third of it yet to go.  It is very soul searching and comforting.

I find it interesting that I have been reading it at a time when my friend has lost so much.  It did afford me some answers to how to talk to and be with people who suffer.  It made me think of so many in the community that I could be of use to that suffer and none of us think of their suffering.  My friend is overwhelmed with people now wanting to comfort her but what of the time to come when she will really need comfort, a listening ear or just someone to set and be with her?  I pray that she will have that comfort, the kind that in the end is more important in the grand scope of things.  I pray that she will seek God.  I don't really know if she has him in her life or not.  See I have failed her, I have never asked or invited her.   She is in my circle.  I must be more thoughtful and see to it that I ask all of my circles....

Today I am thankful for all of my kids.  They are alive and well in their own ways.  They don't always agree with me but they are alive to fight with me and I can still work on seeing that they accept and RSVP their salvation.  I don't think I want to go to heaven and know that I failed my own children if they are not there.  I am also thankful that to date, God has not asked me to suffer the pain of a death in my family, the sorrow of a life taking illness as many of my friends have. Though, I did loose my Grandmother to an illness but she did it with such love and grace, you know the kind that can only come from the love of God, that I didn't remember for a moment all she suffered.  Today I pray for my friend and her family, I hope she can be reunite with her son in heaven some day.... tomorrow.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

The Zoo is behind me, whew! 50,000 to me it's a lot but not so many for many.

I must say that it was a madhouse at the Zoo yesterday especially when at the first store I realize that my debit card was in Poppies pants.  I actually had a check book in the bottom of my purse which amazed me.  Only one store did not take checks so I had to run across town to the Wells Fargo for the cash.  I wouldn't have if I hadn't really want the shirts and pants I picked out for Poppie.  I got a couple of great new books at the Goodwill, as did the girls but on closer inspection the Bible Yogie picked up was a catholic bible and sense I had been wanting to read the books not included int he King James, as reference, I bought it from her.  I made for a long conversation on why the books are not in Our Bibles.  In the end she did not want the catholic bible after the explanation I gave her.  Maybe some day when she is curious, as I am, she will read them as well. We did not get home until nearly eight and Poppie was so worried, though we did call him when we were leaving the Zoo, sometime it does him good to worry.

Today I noticed that I have just past 50,000 views, to most blogger that is nothing.  They get more in a day or week than I have gotten in three full years of writing, yes in February I will celebrate the third anniversary of writing my blog. I will hit 1000 post written in just 15 more posts, so that makes it at almost, or little more, than an average of 50 steadfast readers per post.  Okay to the average blogger that is nothing but to me that is something very special.  It means that somewhere there are around 50 people that tune in every day to see what I am do,  to cry with me, to listen to my senility or maybe just laugh at me, but for whatever reason you all return I get to share my life, my loves, my problems, my family, my friends, my animals and most of all my Love of God with you.  Maybe out there one of you have loved God just a little bit more for having listened to my ramblings and for that I am truly blessed.  I know of late that I have missed up and missed a lot of days,  I don't know if that makes you miss me or just be glad to have a day away for a break?  I do love that you listen because somewhere I know that and I am soothed by your nearness and caring that you show when even if you are frustrated with me you come back, or maybe you just come back hoping for a train wreck, but which ever you come back and that is, and of itself, a form of caring.  Maybe, maybe just maybe I have shared God with you and that is what makes it all worth while..... tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Off to the Zoo, Mom and family came and went, and the hutch is still not done.....

I was so happy that Poppie made such head way on my hutch this weekend.  I even took a couple of photos of it being made and then with a phone call it was off track.  Goofy was in the hospital over night so we had kids over night and all day on Monday so nothing has gotten done on it since.  Well, unless you counting having to get four naughties out of it, no it is not a jungle gym no matter how fun it looks.  So my poor hutch is now awaiting Poppies attention again, and the fact that it is in the middle of the living room means he can't ignore it very long, yay.  Hopefully he can do it tomorrow, I do have to admit I have to pick up some paint at the Zoo today to help it get finished.

Today we go to the Zoo, it may be the day that Yogie finally, after 4 plus years, get her braces off.  She is so looking forward to it.  She hates brushing around her braces and it is more and more of a struggle to fight her to do a good job of brushing around them.  The ladies have plans to spend their Christmas money so we should have a great day.  They are going to school this morning until noon.  I have a few groceries to buy and thats about it maybe a new used book or two at Goodwill.  I bought two cases of tomatoes, a case of tangelos and of course the basket from BBFC for Saturday so should be well stocked fruits and veggies.  I need some flour and basics but not much more.

My parents and the triplets came yesterday.  They came to pick up a slide converter I had.  Funny that both of our parents, Poppies and mine, have come almost a hundred and twenty miles int he last 6 months to visit us and stayed only an hour and a half each, to odd.  Mom and dad had trouble getting up the hill.  Dad had not used his four wheels drive in their new to them truck before so had problems using it and got momentarily stuck on the hill.  It really is an art to drive up our hill if you don't have four wheel drive, but you can if you but do it right.  Most people think when they start to spin they should step on the gas, that is always a mistake, the secret is to slightly and slowly decelerate and the engine will pull you up the hill.  I have lived at the top of the hill for 31 years and have watched many a child driver, and newbie to the road, end up in the ditch or try over and over again to spin up the hill.  I find it funny to watch them, if they don't get hurt of course, because if you tell them the secret to making it up the hill they laugh at you and tell you you are nuts.  They just have to learn for themselves and since they won't listen to advice it is funny to see them do it over and over again.  Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and being surprised that you only get the same results??  I digress.  We did have a nice visit.

Off to get ready to go to the Zoo.  I have one little, Cubbie, Bubbles is at the clinic getting a shot.  She was excited to go, well mostly because she didn't know what a shot was.  I am making head way on my rug, taking lots of photos as I go so I can tell you how I did it, still no bubble so yay for me.   I pray for you and all those who you love.  I hope that you are in Christ and if not you seek him.  I pray that if you are you are inviting your circles in life to be in heaven with you, so you can tell the Lord Jesus you did invite people to eternity.  I have invited you so I am witnessing and working toward soul winning as God asks us all to do.... tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Sorry to have ignored you this last week, lets catch up!

I have been ignoring you all of late and believe me I have thought of you and tried to get to you but alas I have not and missed you.  I actually worked twice this last week, once as a sub because someone was actually ill and one more day of training.  I do think I will love my new job.  I bragged about it in Church and they wished for me that people would be sick so I could work more and I said "oh, please don't! (one I would never wish anyone to be ill and two I don't want to work that much right now this is why this is the perfect job for me).  They decided to pray for me to have only as much work as the Lord thinks I need.

I had Elvis and Chubbie this week their mom was in the hospital.  I did love seeing them but must admit that I have a lot of thinking to do to forget the pain that Goofy as caused of late.  If she would asked for forgiveness it might make it easier.  I forgave her, as I do always when I have an upset, for my soul not necessarily for the offending person.  Okay it's a sin I have to work on.  I have read a couple of good books and one ended with such a wondrous concept I am still wrapping my brain around it.  The book was called, Called to Greatness by Ron Hutchcraft.  He ended it by painting a picture of when we get to Heaven.  I was in Heaven and got to meet Jesus for the first time and I asked him "is so and so here as I am so looking forward to seeing them."  He said to me, "I do know did you invite him?"  I was taken aback by the thoughts that that little sentence brought to me.  Do I ask people to Heaven?  Do I do enough to help them seek and accept their invitation?  Do my little circle of friends, acquaintances and family know that they are invited?  It should be the most important work I do in my life and have I meet the calling?  Are my children invited?  Have they all accepted?  Isn't that the first most important task I have as a mother? more important than the actual raising of them?  Can I imagine life eternal with out them?  The list is inexhaustible and I fall short of being an inviter for sure.  I pray for more adeptness in invitership and need to make it more my daily goal.  Do I show my salvation to the people I interact with?  Am I being Christ like to all the people I meet?  Just think of the thinks one sentence can provoke......

I have been working on my braiding for the rug for my living room.  I hope to make it six by nine.... I said hope.  I had to gather together all of my seals for my 4ever recaps yesterday, they are having a voluntary recall on the seals.  They have found that the silicone ones are not as good as the nitrile ones and have failed massively.  I have most of them together I have to account for 600.  I recanned all of my water bath jars yesterday.  Luckily I had ordered an extra 100 seals and we use about 6 jars a day so a lot were empty or are now are empty.  I still have 49 regulars either on pressure sealed jars or gifted out.  I also have 78 wide mouth in the same situation.  I probably won't wait to collect them and use them in the future for lotion bars in a jar, for lactose fermentation or maybe storage jars.  I am so glad they are replacing the seals, I do love the lids as much as I love my Tattlers.

Well I am sort of caught up and I haven't even gotten to tell you about the hutch, well I do have to leave something for tomorrow don't I?  May you invite someone dear to you to be with you in heaven, may you and your loved once receive your salvation and rsvp for live in Heaven for all eternity.  To think that salvation is our RSVP is so amazing... tomorrow.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Year, Good-bye to the one gone by.......

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday, or for several days gone by I suppose if we are counting.  I am here today and alone for the moment  the littles will be at the door in a short time.  The holidays are gone and I am glad for that.  I do wish I had gotten more time to spend with my girls.  Mokie is soon going to be an at home mom again and I am looking with delight to that day.  I love my grands but have come to a point where the peas are beginning to roll out of the cup with having them here all day long.  I will still get to see them daily, I suppose, but with there mom at home, or maybe here, I can tell them to go home if I fell the desire to have them go home.  I know to grandmothers that rarely get to enjoy their grands that sounds cruel, or unloving, but not so much when they are here all the time.  There is a point of aaaah and a point when you love them more if you are not always responsible for them.  I am there and need a break.  That is my first New Year wish to spend more time with my grands as their Nanna and not their daycare.

I want to continue with a lot of the good I have begun in the past years.  I want to stay on the path of seeking to better the foods we have in our life.  Grow more, canning more (that might be possible but not sure, I did keep my 1000 jars from being lazy last year), raise more and that which I can not to buy smarter.  I would like to be able to buy better flour and grain this year.  Make sure I keep my Kefirs up better and make sure it is an integral part of our lives.  I would like to be able to exercise on a daily bases this year.  I am not looking to loose a hundred pounds, but that is probably what I should, I am looking to put the balance of exercise into my life again, something I can not do with a whole passel of kids here daily.  I want more time with my daughters because I know from experience that life is fleeting and a childhood is gone to quickly.  My girls could use the break as well.

I want to study the Word  more avidly this year.  I know that the more I study the more peace I am afford from the Lord.  I am teaching the Ladies the importance of making time for the Lord, even in our special allotted time together it is of utmost importance to give some of that time to the Lord because it is given back to you tenfold plus.  I try to teach them generosity with the Lord, as well, that giving to the Lord is not always about money. It is about what you have, who you are and your time with others, they are all gifts you can give back to God, after all it is all his to begin with isn't it?  You can not count the blessings you get when you share the Lord with others.  Think about it, what you give to the Lord is stored  up in heaven and do you really want it all to be "gold or silver"? yes,  I do but gold and silver in heaven will not be money, as that will not survive the fires of Gods testing.  The people who your life touches is the Gold in heaven you will enjoy, so what is the silver?   The people that those peoples life touched and on and on? I think so.  I know that there is giving, and there is giving, so give all you can of you, it is so much more soul fulfilling than just writing a check. If I can teach my children to be the light of the world while Jesus is gone, and we are instructed to be such, I will have succeeded as a mother  but more importantly my children will have succeeded as adopted children of God and that is much more important.

Poppie has promised we will be going camping more this summer just some much needed away time. We can't take the Ladies on fancy vacations but we can give them our time and we have all decided this is our summer to get back into it.  Our second big resolutions is to give of our time to others and to ourselves.

I think that two major resolutions will be a lot of work to accomplish in just one year, so there I will stop.  Not sure I just named two, but more like two large concepts, I hope to accomplish them so maybe that they are big means I won't have forgotten them by the 31st of this month, as so many people do.

I pray that Jesus reigns in you life, if not, this is the day, the year and the time to find out who he is, be saved and start a relationship with him, that could be your resolution.  Your soul depends on it. ........ tomorrow.