It's Been a While!

I just returned from a wonderful week of fun in the sun in Florida with two of my daughters and three of my grandchildren! We had a wonderful time swimming each day and looking for seashells on the beach!

I'm afraid I haven't been posting too regularly lately! It's summer, what can I say? :) I've been reading as much as I can, which I love to do in the summer time! Just yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a new Artist Set for an unbelievable price!! It has all the mediums in it you could want!! Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, Pencils and Charcoal! The wooden box it all comes in, opens up to be used as an easel! I haven't painted or drawn much in the past 8 years. I stopped when I began working full-time! I got the urge to get back to it the other day as I was finishing the unpacking of the remaining boxes left since our move back into our house! I unpacked some of my paintings and rehung them in my room and that started the old urge to paint again! As some of you know, we had moved when my husband accepted the position of a Camp Director back in November of last year. Well..... needless to say that did not work out and we ended up going back to our previous employer, who gladly accepted him back! Praise be to God for that! We moved back into our home downtown, which didn't sell, by the way! One reason to be thankful for the lousy economy as someone said!

I'm going to try to start drawing and painting again! I'm so excited and can't wait to get back to it!

Here is a picture of my new Art set!!

Pandemics

A Pandemic?

It seems that when we turn on the radio, all we're hearing about now is the "Swine Flu Pandemic". A pandemic exists that has been around since almost the beginning of time: it's called "Sin".

Romans 3:10 "as it is written,
THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

Just as the medical world is seeking to intervene and put an end to this before it gets out of hand and kills thousands of people, there is a God who saw the desperate condition of mankind and sent a "remedy": His Son, to die for the sins of the world, and ALL who believe and accept Him as their personal Savior, will live. Just like a flu pandemic, no one will be safe unless they receive the vaccine. So it is with 'Sin', all of our own efforts will prove useless before a Holy God. The only "remedy" is receiving the sacrifice already provided, the sinless sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from our sin.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (NASB)

The Joys of Spring

One of the things I love best about spring, is not only gardening, but watching the birds! After being in Chicago for three weeks, I came home to find this lovely little Mourning Dove had built her nest on top of the outdoor ceiling fan on my upper deck. She was undaunted by my presence and tenacious about staying with her nest! I read about Mourning Doves online and found that a Mourning Dove usually has two eggs in her nest and the nest is tended in the mornings by the male and then in the evenings by the female. It usually takes about 14 days for the eggs to hatch. I can't wait to see the babies!

On our lower porch ceiling, two sets of Purple Finches have been busy at work making their nests in our ceiling lights! Although I haven't seen them the past couple days, so I'm not sure if they've given up the idea of having their nests here because there is too much traffic!

In the meantime, I've been hard at work planting my summer garden and tending to that. Three years ago, my daughter gave me some of her Iris bulbs when she thinned them out and this is how they look in full bloom!

I love Spring!!

Life's Little Changes and Rolling With the Punches

Dear Friends,

Where do I begin? It seems what we thought was a "dream" turned out to be a "nightmare"! We were totally mislead about the job on the mountain and once we got up there, we were staying in a little, OLD, furnished house that was only meant to be rented out to people attending events for a few days at a time. It was very nice, but not meant to be lived in for long periods. We were lead to believe that our house would be started right away and we'd be living in it within a matter of a few months at the most. That never happened and 5 months later, there was still nothing being done on the house. When we first went up to talk about the position, we asked if there were any financial problems at all and were adamantly told that there were not. Once up there and once we began working, we found out that there were financial problems and money was VERY tight and scarce; to the point that they didn't know if they could make payroll from one week to the next. Then the entire job seemed to change and was not what we were told it would be. The stress levels were so thick amongst all the staff that whenever the owner came around, everyone stiffened up and acted like they were afraid to breathe. The owner would laug about this when it was brought up. A few of the staff people quit working for her because of how they were treated and she said she didn't care. After trying to make this work for 5 months, we dedided that this was not what we were called to do and enquired into our previous job. We were enthusiastically welcomed back with open arms! We're now back in our house that we had put up for sale and took off the market so we could move back in! I couldn't be happier!! I've planted flowers and a vegetable garden and once again love sitting on my upper deck watching the sun set over the mountains! Life is good and so is our God!

Trials of Life

It's been a long while since I've had the time to post anything on my blog! We have indeed moved up the mountain now, lock, stock and barrel! Since moving up here, I've discovered that my allergies have gotten worse and now have to take allergy shots each week! Because of all the molds here, I got a very bad sinus infection and the allergy doctor put me on a steroid and a few other medications! These caused my blood pressure to soar which made me have to go to the ER a couple times! They increased my BP meds which caused other problems along with the problems the steroids were causing! It's been a mess and for the past month, I've had a lot of issues that were not pleasant and at times very scary! Thank God, I believe they now have the BP meds adjusted and I am back to working part-time in the office again for now, which is fine with me. I started out working full-time and didn't much care for that.

Anyway, hopefully now I'll be able to post here a little more often than I have been. It won't be daily, but hopefully at least once or twice a week! I've missed reading some of my favorites!

Wishing you all a wonderfully blessed day in the Lord!

Linda