Saturday, December 31, 2016

Reflecting on 2016

It's hard to believe 2016 is almost over. It doesn't seem possible. I've been reflecting on how this year started off so horribly. Losing Dad in December of 2015 was really hard for our family and then losing the house Tim and our girls grew up in was almost unbearable!

But through it all, we have seen God's hand in everything. He provided a place for us to stay for free at our friend's YWAM base. He provided enough money for us to stay in a nice hotel for two weeks. Our realtor and his wife provided their RV on their property for us to live in for free while we looked for a house. God showed us this house and confirmed this is the home He wanted for us.
Funny thing about living here in the country, I at first wasn't "feeling" it. It's far away from stores and it's sort of in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't ready to live in a rural area. I wanted to live in the city near Walmart, JoAnn fabric, etc. But after spending a month in the RV and getting used to small town living, I love it here! I wouldn't want to go back to city living.

Today our realtor is bringing me a cheesecake for my birthday. Did I tell you he makes killer cheesecakes? He and his wife have this tradition of making a cheesecake when they close on a house. We got a cheesecake when we moved in and I asked him to please make one for my birthday.

I will be posting my goals for 2017 tomorrow (Lord willing) as is my tradition of posting on January 1st of each new year.
Have a Happy and safe New Year.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Some Snow Pics

We had our first experience with snow and we had a real White Christmas. With all the sadness I wad feeling ans still feeling I wanted to post something nice.
Our trees. The middle tree is decorated but you can't see them due to so much snow.

Part of the front of our house. Looks like a Christmas card!

This is our street .There really is a road there!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Feeling Completely Overwhelmed!😢

I'm just so overwhelmed with all the celebrity deaths that has happened in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday I was moved to tears over all the losses and feeling the family members pain. I also know that there are those who died without every knowing the love of God and the peace that comes when Jesus is their Lord and Savior.

That's why it is so important to pray for those celebrities. I'm not going to name names of  those who especially need our prayers but when you are online and a news blurb comes up about someone stop and pray for that person.  This is definitely true when the article glorifies a woman wearing an article of clothing she shouldn't be wearing or posting inappropriate pictures online. I've come across those lately and I won't read them. I just pray for salvation for the person involved.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

If You Think of It

Please pray for Carrie Fisher and Nick Cannon. Carrie as you Star Wars fans know played Princess Leia. She had a massive heart attack if you hadn't heard yesterday and is in the ICU at a Los Angeles hospital. Nick Cannon is in the hospital suffering from lupus. He's the former husband of Mariah Carey and was a Nickelodeon star when he was a kid. Pray for healing but mostly their salvation.Thank you!

I also want to thank the new ladies who visited my blog recently. It was a blessing to see your comments. Have a safe and Merry Christmas!

Dreaming of a White Christmas Take 2

Well my post disappeared into not so smartphone space. Here are a couple of backyard pictures.

Oops!

My post that is either slow in posting because I posted from my phone. The title says I'm Steaming of a White Christmas. It should have said I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. Hope it shows up.

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish my readers a very Merry Christmas! This is our nativity scene my aunt-in-law gave us many years ago when my girls were little.


Thursday, December 22, 2016

Mini Gingerbread Houses

I bought a gingerbread house cutter to make mini gingerbread houses. We had never made them before. We didn't have much to decorate them but we had fun anyway.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Christmas Music

I love Christmas and I love Christmas music. I love Christ-centered ones the best. Some of my favorite songs are O Come, O Come Immanuel, Silent Night, O Holy Night, Do You Hear What I Hear(sung by Whitney Houston or Bing Crosby) and Joy to the World.
I have a few secular ones that I enjoy like Silver Bells, White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
I will miss hearing the Christmas carolers coming to our door like they did at our old house in CA. I don't know if we will get them here being out in the country and all.  Maybe I could get a group of people together and go Christmas caroling ourselves.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Christmas TV Ads

I admit I'm a sucker for mushy make me cry Christmas TV ads. Some of my favorites are really old like the one from McDonald's where all the kids are ice skating with Ronald McDonald. But there's a little boy who can't skate as well as his friends so he has this sad look on his face. That is until Ronald scoops him up and spins around with him. There's one from Apple iphone from Christmas 2013 called Harris Holiday or something like that. This one there's a teenage boy who appears to be into his phone and not really participating with the family but in reality he is making a special Christmas video. I became a blubbering idiot when I saw it for the first time. Don't get me started on the Hallmark ads that only air during Hall of Fame presentations. 😭😭😭

We don't have cable so we don't get to watch many of the Christmas movies but we do have a small collection of DVDs like It's a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St. Louis, A Charlie Brown Christmas to name a few. I'll have to watch YouTube for the Hershey Kisses commercial. That's my favorite!

Monday, December 12, 2016

One Year Ago,Christmas and Loss

Our lives changed forever when my father-in-law passed into glory. He suffered greatly from COPD,dementia and a cracked hip. We had no idea then that we would be selling our house and moving to Arizona.
That first Christmas without Dad was painful but I'm sure it was worse for my dh Tim. He made sure Christmas for us was as normal as we could possibly be though. I think experiencing grief during the holidays is excruciating. I like to pray for those involved in Hollywood and this year many passed away so I know their families are feeling the loss of their loved ones during this time of year.
There were, that because we were going through our own grief, I didn't even know were gone. People like Patty Duke, Delores Roberts, and Prince. I want to remember their families in prayer.

So here it is Christmas time in our new home. It's a little weird because at our old house in CA we decorated with some of the same decorations and each decoration had it's special place in the home.
When Tim brought in the Christmas boxes we started going through them but we weren't sure where to put things because it just wasn't the same.
I watched a YouTube video recently of a old Hallmark commercial that aired during the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. The commercial was about a little boy and his family spending their first Christmas in their new home. He was all concerned about where things were going to go. Anyway, his mom shows him some of the ornaments they had collected that held special meanings. The commercial ends with the little boy saying "I'm glad we brought Christmas with us."
So we brought Christmas with us. We have put our decorations in new places. We have a beautiful nativity wall hanging that used to hang by our front door in the entry so that it would be the first thing people saw when they came in.
This year it is hanging over the wall flat screen TV rack that came with the house. We have a fireplace so now our stockings can hang on the mantel.  At our old house they hung on a wall in the entry outside the nativity wall hanging.

Even though things will never be the same, I'm so grateful that the Lord has brought us to this house. I'm am grateful we get to celebrate our Savior's birth here. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Monday, November 28, 2016

Emu Egg

My oldest daughter came for Thanksgiving last week and tonight we got to scramble it and taste it for the very first time. It was very light and fluffy. Tim drilled a hole in it because we want to keep the empty shell. Here's Tim emptying the shell into a bowl. Isn't that shell pretty?

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Google Blogger Grr!

I apologize if some of you have left comments and they haven't appeared. Google changed everyone's dashboard so I don't where to look for comments that need approval. Google calls it "improving". I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Someone's comment got put in the spam section which I never knew existed and I accidently it before I read it. Are any of you having issues with leaving comments on my blog or anyone elses?

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Forgot to Mention

I rededicated my life to Christ in 2005 when I was beginning to live a more plain lifestyle and wearing a headcovering.

People Without Jesus Part 2

A kindly Titus 2 lady led me to the Lord. She explained that "being good enough"  is not what the Bible says. She showed me scripture after scripture the plan for salvation. That was in the spring of 1982. I've haven't always been faithful during my walk with the Lord though. I walked away from Him after my dad died in 1984. I was very angry with Him for taking my dad away. I listened to angry heavy metal music,quit going to church and avoided my Christian friends. Funny thing is, this only lasted a few months because I was starting to miss my friends and most of all my Lord.
I was miserable and I was so happy the the Lord took me back.

When I think about that time I was away from the Lord I think of those who reject Him. They must be miserable and without peace. I know they are definitely not fun to be around. That clearly shows in the posts they make on the forum I mentioned in Part 1. Their post are very anti-Christian and anti-God. Oh how I hate how Satan has blinded these ladies and has lied to them about the Lord and how much He loves them.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! May your day be blessed. I will post part two of my post People Without Jesus tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

People Without Jesus Part 1

I feel really sorry for people who don't know the Lord. I really do. I follow blogs by Christian women and it boggles my mind the comments that people leave in response to a post. On one of the blogs I follow, some of the comments were hateful towards a very godly wife who chose to stay with her husband who cheated on her. Her husband has since repented and they are working on their marriage.. My comment  to those who were judging this wife was " Let those who are without sin cast the first stone..I'm waiting"  Did you know there are "perfect"? I couldn't believe these people who claimed they never sinned and how "perfect" they are. Then I realized they really don't have Jesus in their lives. Before I came to the Lord, I thought I was perfect and didn't sin. Just because I didn't lie, cheat, get drunk, didn't kill anyone, etc I thought I had a "clear conscience".  I was wrong. I thought because I was a "good person" I was going to heaven. I thought because I believed in God. I was going to heaven. It wasn't until I took some time to read my Bible and listened to sermons in church(when I went) that the Lord started to convict me of my sin.

 

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Being Thankful and Treats From God

This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful I have the Lord in my life to guide me. I'm so very thankful for my husband and three daughters. I'm so thankful for our new house that the Lord directed us to.  I find it overwhelming sometimes how God has blessed us. The free furniture we got was extra special. One of the things the sellers left for us for free was a dinette set for seating for four. This works great since there are currently just four of us but we will have four extra people for early Thanksgiving on Monday. I was pondering this last Friday and was wondering where we would buy four extra chairs. Well that Saturday we needed to get the remainder of our stuff out of the U-Haul storage facility. They have a section where people can leave unwanted items or you can take something someone else has left. . It's a nice way to reduce waste. Well would you believe someone left four dining room chairs? They don't match our set but it doesn't matter! We can seat extra people now. We were so excited to say the least.

There are times when God gives His children gifts that we might not realize that are gifts. Did you catch Monday's super moon? We love how the Lord showed His power. The moon was absolutely beautiful that night. At 7:00 the next morning our youngest daughter knocked on our door because she wanted us to see the moon. It was still shining so brightly and beautiful. I'm 55 years old and that was my first time ever seeing a moonset. I again consider it a treat from the Lord. Even the rabbit that I told you about in my last post is a treat from Him.
We've never lived in an area where we see such wildlife. So what are you thankful for? What little treats from the Lord have you experienced?

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

If You Look Closely...

You will see a cute rabbit sitting in our rocks. I was doing dishes this morning and looking out my window and there it was. Tim snapped a picture for me. Isn't he cute? Mama if she were here she'd want him in her frying pan!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

What's He Praying About?

This little guy has been hanging out by our patio door for days. I don't like bugs but I thought this praying mantis was sort of cute! I'd like to think he's praying for revival but most likely he hopes for bugs😊

I couldn't get the picture larger so you all can see him better.

Friday, October 21, 2016

That's Better!

We went to Wally World yesterday and I saw these  cute vinyl wall stickers. I've seen ladies on Pinterest(I love Pinterest!) decorate their washer and dryer with  stickers. So last night my daughter decorated mine!

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Poor Picture Quality

I want to apologize for the poor quality of some of the pictures. I'm not good at taking pictures. I took a picture of the master bedroom and bath but they didn't turn out well. I'll try to post more tomorrow.

A Few Pictures

Okay, here are a few pictures. They are of the living room, dining room, laundry room  and kitchen.. We aren't done yet so please ignore the messes. I haven't posted pictures on my blog before so I hope I can figure it out.
The living room. I love it has a fireplace!
The kitchen. The kitchen island the previous owners gave it to us for free. I've always wanted a kitchen island but they are really expensive.




 The laundry room. I want to decorate the washer and dryer. The look so boring.




Another view of kitchen




Dining room





Friday, September 30, 2016

We Finally Moved Into Our House

We moved officially into our new home on September 25th. We are so happy and grateful the Lord led us to this house. It's just right for us. It's a lovely three bedroom, two bath on 1.28 acres. We looked at many properties with our realtor but many had way too much acreage for our taste because they had space for horses. We are planning to buy any horses though hubby said we could use the horses corrals for something else.Anyway, this house was the very last on the list and we right away loved it.

 It is in the country but not so far out that we aren't close to a market. We have neighbors on either side of us which I prefer as I don't want to have the nearest neighbor a mile up the road.

I will post pictures when we have everything unpacked and put away. Currently the living room is a disaster with boxes everywhere. The other rooms aren't too bad so I may post pictures of those rooms first.
We are all overwhelmed at God's goodness to us. He has blessed us in more ways than than we ever expected. We waited patiently for a home which in all honesty, was very hard. We moved to Arizona not knowing where we would be living. We spent two weeks in a hotel and then a month in our realtor's RV which was a huge unexpected blessing.
God is good.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Happy Grandparents Day.

I want to wish all you grandmothers (and grandfathers if you happen upon my blog) a very blessed Grandparents Day!

You Wish You Can Forget

It's one of those things you wish you can really forget. The images. That second plane. The wreckage at the Pentagon. Wreckage at that field. The horror of what happened and the realization that it wasn't an accident but that evil took place 15 years ago.

Today remember to pray for the families who lost loved ones that terrible day.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

You May Be Wondering

Why in the world would we move to an unfamiliar state without securing a house to move in first? I often ask myself that too but I felt a certain amount of peace when we were driving here. The Lord has instructed us to move here and He will show us where to go.
It's just like Abram ( before he became Abraham) when God told him to leave his land and go to a place that He will tell Him where to go. Now I don't see God changing our names when we get to our new house but I do know He will be changing our way of life. I'm really excited!😃

In Arizona But No House Yet!

We arrived in Arizona (Prescott Valley) on August 12th. It is so nice to be here but we are currently looking for a house. Actually we've narrowed it down to a couple that are out in the country. The problem is we are waiting for the final probate paperwork to be processed and signed off by a judge in Santa Barbara. Then we can make an offer on a house. We thought seriously about renting but we decided we want to buy instead. We are praying this happens soon.
In the mean time, we are staying at a nice hotel and buying groceries for meals at Dollar Tree and Walmart. This definitely helps keeps our spending on eating out down to a minimum.


Monday, July 11, 2016

Update

Well first of all I hope this post comes through. My husband and I got free smartphones and I'm new to this whole app thing. I downloaded the Blogger app and it weird to use and I had trouble figuring out how to approve comments. Anyway we visited Prescott and Chino Valley and we just loved it. So Lord willing we will move in mid August unless the Lord has us move sooner.
Prayers are appreciated please. Sorry this is so short. I have an appt and need to go.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

So the News Is..

We are moving to AZ. We can't afford Santa Barbara anymore and AZ appears to be much cheaper. We have prayed for the Lord's will and my husband Tim and I feel a deep peace about moving. We are looking at Prescott or Chino Valley. It will be an exciting adventure. We will be going to look at houses there sometime soon so we will have a place to before we move of course. Please keep us in prayer.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

I'm Still Here

I'm so so sorry I haven't posted in so long. We lost our internet service due to not being able to pay for it. So I have to go to the library get online. It's been tough these last few months with trying to pay bills. We lost our water service for about a week and that was terrible. We appreciate running water so much more now.
I will write more next week when I have more time.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Google Blogger Account Changes

I just read an update on Google's Blogger account changes. Apparently readers who want to follow and comment on blog posts they need to sign up for a Google account. I wasn't aware of this until I read Google's Blogger Buzz today where they state that all non Google followers have to have a Google account to follow blogs. They used to have a Friend Connect feature for people to sign into to follow blogs but that feature is gone.
I'm going to see if I can change my settings to allow non Google readers to at least be able to comment on my posts.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Why I Moderate Comments to My Posts

I have read many a blog and watched many YouTube videos. Many of these allow unmoderated comments. Some of these are anonymous. I can't believe the evil comments that some people leave because either they are just horribly mean or they want attention because the blog author won't moderate the posts. Then you get people whoget angry at the person who left the mean comment and next thing you know there is name calling, backbiting and more. So because of that I have chosen to moderate comments and also not allow anonymous comments.  It may seem like I'm censoring people but I believe it's the best way to keep out inappropriate comments not to mention spam.
So far I have never had to reject any comments. Many of the people who read my blog have been very kind even though they may not agree with what I write.
I thank you all for that.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

One More Thing

There is no doubt in my mind that Joey will be going to heaven. She loves her Lord Jesus and  know He will welcome her with open arms.
One of the sympathy cards we got was of Jesus welcoming a man home with a hug. It was beautiful but I confess that card was hard for me to look at.

Some Random Thoughts

One of the goals I was thinking about in the last week or so is to give this blog more attention by posting more. I don't want to be an inactive blogger so I plan to post at the very least twice a month if not more.

I have noticed in the past few weeks there have been a number of passings in the entertainment world. Natalie Cole, David Bowie to name a couple.  Whenever entertainers die I wonder what their spiritually life was like. I know many have died without Christ and to me that is a tragedy.

Lately I have been following a blog by a country singer named Rory Feek of Joey+Rory. Now I want to say up front I'm not a country music fan. I had never even heard of these people until around November. To those who are unfamiliar with Joey+Rory they are a husband-wife duo popular in the country music field. They are also Christians and I guess they have done some hymn albums.

Joey is near death from cancer(I hate cancer!) and she will be leaving behind her husband and 22 month old baby girl. About three years ago the couple recorded a song called "When I'm Gone" The song was written by their friend Sandy Lawrence. She had written the song when her mom was dying of cancer (Did I tell you I hate cancer?!) Sandy wrote the song to help her deal with her feelings about her mom's about her mother's eventual death which is the message of the song.
 They did a video for the song and they originally were going to record the song as a duet but their producers or whatever they are called came up with the idea of Joey singing to Rory and he would be the one left behind. Little did they know this would actually happen.

This is the link to Rory's most recent post with the song. I'm warning you now you will go through an entire box of tissues because of what Rory is going through:  http://thislifeilive.com/when-im-gone/
 I think the song has helped me in some ways to deal with my father-in-law's death which I'm still dealing with.


Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year- 2016!

2015 has come and gone and what a year it was. I think of some of the life changing events that occurred such as my father in law falling  and cracking his hip in early February, us deciding to leave our old church at the same time of his fall. Other events include attending a new church, losing a precious friend to cancer and before Christmas losing my father in law.

So now here it 2016 and I wonder what the Lord is going to do. Usually I begin my posts for the new year with goals I want to accomplish for the year. This time I think I just want to make a goal of having my daily time with the Lord. Because honestly I don't know what the future holds.  Many of the goals I've wanted to accomplish over the years I've failed at such as losing weight for example.
So my main goal as I said is to have quiet time with God. December I failed miserably which I didn't plan for that to happen. Instead of drawing closer to God after the death of Dad instead I drifted away from Him.
I hope to avoid that this year.

Moving My Blog

 After still trying to figure out the subscription thing with MailChimp and never having success, I've decided to go ahead and use my Wo...