Crafty hands

Today was a great day .... ahhhh. :o) I love days like this. It's getting to be the end of the day and I am tired out and sore all over - because I've been active and productive all day! This day started with us heading to the health club where I did my usual workout while Danny took photos of our group BodyFlow class. I told him that I was afraid to look at his photos, afraid that it would only confirm my suspicions of what I really look while working out! This is all I could think about:

We got home and had a simple lunch and then I headed out to do yard work while Danny had the fun job of taking packages and our Christmas cards to the post office. Besides raking up a ton of leaves, one of my tasks today was to cut off the suckers that were growing straight up out of our Japanese plum trees. As I was trimming them and throwing them all in a pile, they made me think of the wrapped grapevine wreaths that make such beautiful decorations, and how these small branches would be perfect for that. So, with my ADD in high gear, I took a break from yard work and just started wrapping branches in the driveway! While I was twisting them, two Indian women walked by and smiled and seemed to be admiring what I was doing. I held up the wreath to show them, and they said a few sentences to me in Punjabi. I am hoping they were complimenting me - but it's also quite likely that they were just laughing at a silly white girl trying to make art out of lawn clippings. ;-) But, soon I had two wreaths all twisted up!

The smaller one is probably 18" and the larger one is about 24" across. They are now drying in the garage - I can't wait to decorate them! When I showed Danny what I'd made while I supposed to be doing yard work, after complimenting them he said, "But, who does that?!" ;-) My mind just works that way, I guess! I am always happy when my hands are making things, and it never really matters what I'm making. I'm just happy to be being crafty! That's one of the things I like the most about the pre-Christmas season; that's usually when I have the most projects in the works. And, speaking of which, time for me to get off the computer and back to work in Santa's workshop here. Goodnight all!

Onward and Upward!

WHEW! Boy, am I glad to be done with that! I can now say that all of the entries that I wanted to transfer from my old blog site have now been successfully transferred. I do have to say that it was really interesting to go back through them and see what all was going on in my life over the last two years. Wow, has it ever been a time of change!! (Especially considering that most of the changes weren't covered in blog entries.) :-)

So, from here on out everything will be current events - no more looking back, let's look ahead! I expect that my entries here will be as random as the thoughts in my head, since the two are pretty connected. ;-) Who knows, I might post more crafty stuff, thoughts on faith, updates on life, and stuff like that. Whatever floats my little boat!! Hope you are well tonight!

Rewind #12: Oh, Just So You Know....

Original air date: 8Feb2010

Unless there is some crazy, REALLY
embarrassing typo or error,  I am not going
to go back to through old posts and correct
anything. If I did that as a rule of thumb,
I could easily find myself tinkering them
to death which would mean I’d never
actually be finished with ANY of the
posts, and if you went back and read
something it wouldn’t be an “authentic”
post ... at least in my opinion. Oh, and hey - it’s my blog!
So I guess my opinion counts. :-P

OK, done with the editor’s note. Goodnight.

Rewind#5: A Little Clue

Original air date: 1Jun11

So the other day I was thinking ......

Think for a minute about God, as you believe Him to be. Think about His attributes and His personality. (No really. Close your eyes for a moment and think only of God.) Think about what you believe happens when we die. Is there an afterlife? Do you believe in heaven or hell? Do you believe some people will spend eternity in the presence of God while others spend eternity in torment? If so, who? Who will be in heaven, and who will be in hell? Murderers, child molesters and Nazis? What about people who are generally decent people, but who you know are crooked businessmen, or who cheat on their husband? What about people who are incredibly loving and kind, yet live life their own way and do not honor God? Where will they spend eternity? Where will you spend eternity? Now that you’ve thought of this “list” of those who you believe will be in heaven or hell, let me ask you this: Do you agree with that list? Are all the people you call ‘bad’ in hell and the ones you call ‘good’ in heaven? Are there any that you might say, “I know God has said ‘_____’, but if *I* were God I would do it differently”? 

So here’s a little litmus test I thought of for my own beliefs recently, and I hope this might help you: If you agree with every decision that you believe God has made (and I don’t mean ‘agree’ as in ‘you think God ultimately made the right call’ - I mean that you personally would have made the same call) ... if you would have made every decision the same way you believe God has made them, then it’s possible you have created a god in your own image. In my personal experience, it is usually in the times when I can be honest with God and say, “I know that you are a fair and just God, and every decision You make is perfect. Yet I still have to say I don’t understand this, and I might even go so far as to say I’m a little angry about this .... yet, Father, not my will but Thine be done” ... when I can say this, I know that I am choosing to submit not to my own intelligence and opinions but to the Intelligent Designer’s. I’m not saying that if we agree with God then we aren’t being truthful ... I’m just saying if we agree with everything God has said, it might be a clue or a red flag. God has said, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8,9) ... and: “I know, O LORD, that man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23)

So, am I trying to direct my own steps? Are you? 

Jesus said, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” (John 12:48)

Hey man, what's with the "rewinds"????

I went back and forth on this one. Since I had started a blog on a separate site (that will become defunct - thanks, Apple,) and am switching to this site -- the big question became, do I delete and lose all of those posts? Do I try to type them over? Do I re-explain all that stuff? The easiest thing for me to do - and the easiest way for you to avoid the repeats - was for me to literally "copy & paste" them into this new format. Since they are marked "rewind," you'll know to not go back and read them again if you've read them in the past. So, all that to say, if you're not interested in all the past junk, just skip on over it and wait until I think of something new to say. :o) As for now, I'm tired. Time for bed.

Rewind#1: Getting Set Up

(Original air date: 23Jan10) Well here I am, certainly no jet-setter ... I am joining the world of online blogging at a point when many people literally have years of entries in their archive! Choosing to start a blog at this point is, as I believe most things in life are, at just the right time. This is an outlet I need and a connection I desire, which will hopefully carve out a niche much deeper than Facebook, different than email, but certainly no replacement for all those deep conversations that happen over a great cup of coffee at wee hours of the night. Blogging is an adventure and a style of communication all its own .... and here we go! I have some hopes and some thoughts and even a few plans of what I’d like to include in this blog ... but mostly I look forward to the identity that is created along the way. I want this blog to have the freedom to morph from one identity to the next ... which I guess will meet the needs from one situation to the next. I will pay close attention to my grammar and spelling and punctuation (trying always to remember if the question mark goes inside or outside the quotes, and when to use “effect” and when to use “affect”,) but the bottom line is, this is not intended to be a discourse about English composition! I hope that you can bear with me as all the days I skipped English class to go hang out in the Metals or Ceramics studios become quite clear ...... so to my readers who excel FAR more than me at those topics (you know who you are!) - I apologize in advance and ask for your patience. :)

Since this blog will follow and document certain parts of life, it’s natural to assume that we will cover all kinds of topics! This blog will likely reflect the areas that are most important in my life, which all center around relationships: first and foremost is my relationship with Christ. How the day He entered my life forever changed everything about me, and why I will NEVER be the same; my relationship with my husband -- why a man who knows he is “second-best” in his wife’s eyes knows that is the best place he can be ... why he desires to have a wife who will always put God above her husband; and also my relationships with my two families -- my family by my parents’ blood, and my family by the blood of Christ. I am SO grateful for the love and support that both of these families has given me over the years. And I have to admit that it is only in recent years that I have REALLY grabbed ahold of those relationships. My family has always been there for me ... giving me much more help & support than I had ever returned with gratitude ... yet it has been a recent chapter in my life where I have wholeheartedly embraced that. Why? Well, the selfishness of youth is the best reason I can give. I don’t think my experiences and feelings were any special phenomenon among teens & early 20-ers, but I am not using that as an excuse. I simply took these people for granted for too many years. For way too long I saw relationships as tools in a tool belt - they sat there patiently waiting for you to realize they were useful at a particular time, and then I’d pull them out of the bag, apply them to the problem at hand, and when the crisis was resolved I would clean them off and put them back in storage until the next crisis would surface. I now realize how selfish an outlet like that is, and I pray that I am now seeing myself as a tool in THEIR bag, trying to be useful in their live (for a change) ... basically embracing the mutual nature of any relationship that is built to last.

So here we go, you and me - off into the wild blue of the world of blogging! Get a fresh mug of coffee, pull up a comfy chair, and let’s go solve the world’s problems together!! :) God bless!